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Guilty as charged. It could be happening to Lowes as well but around here there are more HDs and have a better supply on many things. Carrying cash for your business would be difficult, you'd be running to the bank all the time and time is money.I would assume most of the contractors who regularly buy their materials from Home Depot use credit cards. I guess this is good news for Lowes.
credit cards are just a bad habit !!
Debit cards are actually worse if they are used through fraud. Credit cards will refund your money but quicker then will debit cards, so I am told.
I agree about credit cards but carrying large sums of money doesn't seem prudent either. I use a debit card. If used where they ask debit or credit I almost always chose credit, that way you don't have to enter your pin.
For people with poor impulse control.credit cards are just a bad habit !!
Not really. I pay mine off every month. It also helps a lot with your credit rating, saved me lots of money on all kinds of things, licenses, insurance, etc.For people with poor impulse control.credit cards are just a bad habit !!
Not really. I pay mine off every month. It also helps a lot with your credit rating, saved me lots of money on all kinds of things, licenses, insurance, etc.For people with poor impulse control.credit cards are just a bad habit !!
For me it's writing one check versus many individual ones. I keep all my receipts. I believe it's a requirement for three years by the IRS. I'm not sure about that but I want to categorize them for federal income tax. It's easy really, just throw it in a big pile. Then spend a day sorting and adding them up. It wouldn't work for a big business though.Not to mention, for write offs, it's a heck of a lot easier than keeping receipts for everything.
“Last Tuesday, September 2, we disclosed that we were investigating a possible breach of our payment data systems," says a message posted on the company’s website. "We want you to know that we have now confirmed that those systems have in fact been breached, which could potentially impact any customer that has used their payment card at our U.S. and Canadian stores, from April forward. We do not have any evidence that the breach has impacted stores in Mexico or customers who shopped online at HomeDepot.com. While the company continues to determine the full scope, scale and impact of the breach, there is no evidence that debit PIN numbers were compromised.”
Krebs says “multiple financial institutions” are reporting a steep increase in fraudulent ATM withdrawals over the past few days. “The card data for sale in the underground that was stolen from Home Depot shoppers allows thieves to create counterfeit copies of debit and credit cards that can be used to purchase merchandise in big box stores," Krebs wrote on his blog. "But if the crooks who buy stolen debit cards also are able to change the PIN on those accounts, the fabricated debit cards can then be used to withdraw cash from ATMs.”
Krebs reports that the card data stolen from Home Depot customers and currently for sale on the black market contains ample information for the perpetrators to fabricate counterfeit debit cards – as well as enough personal data to tap bank accounts. It’s already happening, according to KrebsOnSecurity. A West Coast bank reported losing $300,000 in just two hours from debit cards involved in The Home Depot breach. The Home Depot is offering free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to any customer who used a credit or debit card at a company store since April of this year.
Investigators believe a new variant of the malware that lifted account data from point of sale payment terminals in Target last year was used in the Home Depot crime, indicating the hackers have been at work practically non-stop. The stolen card data is being touted on the black market with an “American Sanctions” label, once again raising suspicions of foreign perpetrators. Krebs says that this breach may dwarf the Target hack. “If even a majority of Home Depot stores were compromised — this breach could be many times larger than Target, which had 40 million credit and debit cards stolen over a three-week period,” he says.
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The Home Depot said Thursday that about 56 million customer debit and credit cards were put at risk after hackers broke into the company's payment systems.
In a statement, the home improvement retailer said the malicious software used in the attack had been removed from its computer system in the United States and Canada and that the company had enhanced encryption at point-of-sale terminals at its U.S. stores.
The number of cardholders affected in the Home Depot attack marks what is likely the largest breach ever of a retailer's computer system, surpassing the 40 million cardholders who were affected when Target was hacked last fall.
Home Depot's investigation found the hackers escaped detection by using custom-made malware that had never been seen before. Such malware -- which hackers call "zero days" because that's how long it's been known -- can't be spotted by traditional anti-virus software.
Home Depot said the malware that stole the credit card data resided on its computer systems from April until September of this year -- far longer than the attack against Target, which went on for about three weeks.
Home Depot said there was no evidence that debit card PIN numbers were compromised or that the breach impacted stores in Mexico or customers who shopped online.
The retailer is offering free credit monitoring to customers who used a payment card at a Home Depot store since April. Home Depot has 1,977 stores in the United States and 180 in Canada.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and anxiety this has caused, and want to reassure them that they will not be liable for fraudulent charges,” Home Depot CEO Frank Blake said in a statement. “From the time this investigation began, our guiding principle has been to put our customers first, and we will continue to do so.”
The company said it has finished installing security software that scrambles credit card data to make it unreadable to hackers. The rollout of the software began in January, but it wasn't completed in Home Depot's U.S. stores until last Saturday.
The company also said it will finish setting up more secure credit card readers in all of its U.S. stores by the end of the year. The new technology will be able to read a new type of credit card that uses a combination of an embedded microchip and a code to authorize transactions. "Chip and pin" technology, as it is known, is supposed to make it much more difficult for thieves to use stolen credit card data to make counterfeit cards. All merchants and banks are under an October 2015 deadline to upgrade to the more secure credit cards.
The Home Depot breach is just the latest in a string of cyber attacks against major retailers this year. Target, Sally Beauty, Neiman Marcus and Michaels have all also been hacked.
That list is expected to grow even longer. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security warned that more than 1,000 U.S. retailers may have been infected with malware lurking in their payment systems.
While Home Depot confirmed the size of the breach Thursday, many questions remain unanswered, including how the hackers found their way into the retailer's computer system -- and who they are.
Investigators believe the thieves may be from Eastern Europe because the malware they used in the attack had links to websites referencing the United States' role in the conflict in Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
While the breach affected 56 million cards, it could have been even worse. The hackers installed malware mostly on payment systems in Home Depot's self-checkout lanes, suggesting they likely stole fewer cards than they could have if they had targeted regular checkout lanes, according to cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, who cited sources close to the investigation.
Paper money is a relic of a bygone era and needs to be banned.
Get with the times, fascists. A few minor bumps in the road like this won't halt our progress towards a cashless society.
I would rather pay in cash than be in credit card debt.Paper money is a relic of a bygone era and needs to be banned.
Get with the times, fascists. A few minor bumps in the road like this won't halt our progress towards a cashless society.
