Home Depot breach may have been widespread

Atlanta – The alleged security breach that recently hit The Home Depot Inc. may have compromised credit and debit card data at nearly all of the company’s stores. According to the security website Krebsonsecurity.com, the unique ZIP codes of a large batch of new cards listed for sale on underground hacker sites shows a more than 99% overlap with nearby Home Depot stores, suggesting a widespread breach.



In addition, at least four banks have started tracing stolen card numbers listed for sale back to Home Depot transactions. Although Home Depot has not confirmed that a breach occurred, the retailer is working with security firms Symantec and FishNet Security to investigate if one occurred, the Associated Press reported.



"Our forensics and security teams have been working around the clock since we first became aware of a potential breach Tuesday morning," said Home Depot spokesperson Paula Drake, in a statement. “There is no higher priority at this time than to rapidly gather the facts so that we can provide answers to our customers. We know these types of incidents can cause frustration and concern and we apologize for that."



Home Depot on Wednesday told customers that they will not be held responsible for any possible fraudulent charges if a breach occurred.