Signs Point To Home Depot Credit Card Breach Affecting Delaware Valley
By tech editor Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Home Depot has yet to confirm a customer payment data breach: officials with the hardware chain say only that they're investigating "some unusual activity."
But KYW Newsradio has learned of increasing signs of a massive hack -- with possible victims in our area.
The evidence reads like a local directory: Broomall, Bensalem, King of Prussia, Philadelphia, all in Pennsylvania; and Cherry Hill, West Deptford, Vineland, in New Jersey. The zip codes covering those towns were just some of the dozens from our region showing up on counterfeit credit cards for sale on the black market.
In every case, there's also a Home Depot in the listed zip code.
It is the apparent cybercrime in microcosm: the same story repeats across the country, according to data posted by Brian Krebs with KrebsOnSecurity.com, the researcher who also broke word of the Target hack last year.
"We don't know how many stores are impacted; we don't know for how long," Krebs tells KYW Newsradio. "But if it's all stores, and if it's three months, this could be a lot worse than Target, because they lost 40 million cards in three weeks."
Krebs, via Skype, says the cybercrime store selling credit cards made with stolen information is likely to release many more in the coming weeks, so it's crucial to keep a close eye on your account statement for unauthorized charges.