In December 2013, criminals forced their way into systems, gaining access to guest credit and debit card information. It was determined that certain guest information was also taken, for example, the information included names, mailing addresses, email addresses or phone numbers. The massive data breaches at Target were broken into the retailer's network using login credentials stolen from a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company. The hackers first tested the data-stealing malware on a small number of cash registers. The cost of the breach was far reaching to Target, customers, employees and banks. They sent credit card number stealing malware to cashier stations in all Target stores. In the Target data breach, 40 million payment
