Customer Security Issues Surface At Home Depot, Goodwill Industries

Shoppers Beware! Home Depot is investigating a possible breach of credit and debit card data that could have affected all of the company's stores, including one in Waterloo. Meanwhile, Goodwill Industries confirms a similar breach, but officials say thrift store operations in Northeast Iowa are not impacted by the security lapse.

On Tuesday (September 2, 2014), Home Depot issued a statement after independent security reporter Brian Krebs published an online story saying that multiple banks were pointing to the Atlanta-based company as the potential source of a large data breach. According to Krebs' report, hackers have stolen customer credit and debit card data from Home Depot's systems and put the information up for sale online.

Home Depot officials confirm the company is working with both banks and law enforcement in hopes of confirming the possible data theft. A company spokeswoman says the retailer will alert customers immediately if Home Depot confirms their personal information has been compromised by a hack attack.

In his report, Krebs says a preliminary analysis indicates the breach may have affected all 2,200 Home Depot stores in the United States. The possible breach may have started in late April or early May and could be larger than the breach that occurred at Target, which had 40 million credit and debit cards stolen over a three-week period late last year.

Officials at Goodwill Industries International also released a statement Tuesday, confirming that customer credit and debit card numbers had been stolen at more than 300 stores in 19 states and Washington, D.C., from February 2013 through August 14, 2014. Information about the security breach at Goodwill first surfaced in July.

According to officials at the Waterloo-based Goodwill Industries of Northeast Iowa, the company's investigation concluded that no breach occurred in the local region or anywhere else in Iowa.