WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) and 16 of his colleagues on the Financial Services Committee sent a letter to Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling calling on him to hold a hearing on the Target data breach.
“As Target continues to increase their estimate of how many millions of people were affected by this data breach, Americans rightfully grow wearier of the security of their personal information,” Himes said. “We need to know exactly what happened at Target so that businesses can prevent future breaches and to ensure strong rules are in place to protect consumers and their personal information.”
To date, the personal information of as many as 110 million customers of Target has been put at risk by malware installed on the company’s point of sale registers. This includes 40 million credit and debit cards compromised between November 27 and December 15, 2013, and at least 70 million customers’ personal information – including names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses – stolen from the company’s database. The U.S. Secret Service is currently investigating the breach.