Home Depot confirmed on Monday its payment security systems have been breached, a data theft analysts warn could rival Target Corp's massive breach last year, according to The Associated Press.
Home Depot said the data theft could impact its customers in stores across the United States and Canada, but there was no evidence that online customers were affected or debit personal identification numbers (PINs) were compromised, the AP reported.
"We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake said in a statement, according to the AP. "It is important to emphasize that no customers will be responsible for fraudulent charges to their accounts."
The breach was first reported by security website KrebsOnSecurity almost a week ago when it said the problem could extend back to April and affect all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores in the United States, the AP reported.
No details were immediately available on how many customers were impacted, but Brian Krebs, who runs the security website, said last week the breach could be larger than Target's last year when hackers stole at least 40 million payment card numbers and 70 million other pieces of customer data, according to the AP.
Krebs reported on Monday that Home Depot's systems were hit by a variant of the same malware that compromised Target's systems last year, the AP reported.
Home Depot promised free identity-protection services, including credit monitoring, to any potentially impacted customers, according to the AP. Home Depot had said earlier it will roll out PIN- and chip-enabled cards at all its U.S. stores by the end of the year.
The retailer also said its internal information technology security team is working with banking partners, as well as the U.S Secret Service to gather facts in the investigation, it said, the AP reported.
