Apparently the breach didn’t affect any stores in Mexico or online customers. Home Depot stores have assessed the hacker breach and have provided a new, more secure form of payment, which provides enhanced encryption of payment data. With this new security system in motion, customer’s card data is fully protected and less vulnerable to hackers. This system jumbles up and locks all the card information making it impossible to read and copy, therefore being useless to the hackers.
The breach at Home Depot was first reported on September 2, 2014 by Bran Krebs (D’Innocenzio). It is said that Home Depot should have been more aware of the attacks happening due to the breach at Target last year (Perlroth). It is reported in The Houston Chronicle that banks, retailers, and card companies are trying to quickly adopt the microchip into credit and debit cards for a safer form of payment. When you swipe your card, the magnetic strip in the back provides your retailer with all your card and personal information, thus making it even easier for hackers to commit identity theft. With the new ‘micro-chip card’ anytime you swipe or insert your card into a payment terminal, your card produces …show more content…
First, always make sure you always have a secure internet connection. Most times, it may say you have a good connection when you input all your card information, but as soon as you click ‘purchase’ you lose connection to the website. You then have to refresh the page to get back to where you were, and re-enter your card information. I believe this is one way hackers can get your information. Another way to prevent identity theft is by making sure the web page you’re purchasing an item from or putting your personal information on has a little lock symbol in the web search bar. This lets you know you’re on a secure and legit page that will protect all your information. Also do not make purchases from websites that advertise the ‘too good to be true’ specials. These websites are usually scams that make you enter your information and then say something like ‘sorry, this webpage is unavailable’ or something to that effect. Never make purchases from a site that you’ve never been on. Although everything may seem legit, it can be just a hacker’s website to trick you into putting all your information on the page. So after reading this article, I will definitely be more aware of my surroundings online, and pay attention to little details that could trigger suspicion. If I carefully review some of these tips, I should be in the clear from any hacker’s