4.2 Million Cards exposed by East Coast Supermarket

**c_note** · 18th March 2008, 10:10 AM

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080317/retai...each.html?.v=5

A security breach at an East Coast supermarket chain exposed more than 4 million card numbers and led to 1,800 cases of fraud, the Hannaford Bros. grocery chain announced Monday.

Hannaford said credit and debit card numbers were stolen during the card authorization process and about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed, placing the case among the largest data breaches ever.

The breach affected all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida and a smaller number of independent groceries that sell Hannaford products.

The company is aware of about 1,800 cases of fraud reported so far relating to the breach. No personal data such as names, addresses or telephone numbers were divulged -- just account numbers.

Hannaford became aware of the breach Feb. 27. Investigators later discovered that the data breach began on Dec. 7; it wasn't contained until March 10, said Carol Eleazer, Hannaford's vice president of marketing in Scarborough.

Rest of the article is available on the link above..

**winbig** · 18th March 2008, 10:34 AM

Hannaford became aware of the breach Feb. 27 [...] it wasn't contained until March 10

Can we say gross negligence?

I see lawsuits on the horizon...It takes a couple of hours TOPS to secure a network. You simply take all affected systems OFF of the network, until you can figure out what damage has been done. Plain and simple.

Sure it's going to cost them money in the meantime by not being able to accept credit/debit cards, but why risk their customers security in lieu of making a few extra bucks?

**1819** · 18th March 2008, 01:41 PM

the biggest problem with the identity crisis here is the people who fall victim have an impossible task ahead to clear their name. for whatever reason we have empowered 3 lousy, poorly run, credit agencies to call all the shots in this country. everything is based on what they say and what they say is final.

**winbig** · 18th March 2008, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by 1819

the biggest problem with the identity crisis here is the people who fall victim have an impossible task ahead to clear their name. for whatever reason we have empowered 3 lousy, poorly run, credit agencies to call all the shots in this country. everything is based on what they say and what they say is final.

That's sooo true. I think just about any judge would rule in favor of the customers involved that had their identity stolen as a result of their negligence in this case. When all is said and done, it wouldn't surprise me if they're held liable for everything...