Staples Confirms That 1.16 Million Credit Cards Affected In Data Breach

Today Staples has confirmed that approximately 1.16 million credit cards were affected in a data breach. Here is the key information:

• Malware was deployed at 115 of 1,400 US retail locations
• Malware was removed immediately upon detection back in mid September
• Data that the Malware had access to was:
  • Cardholder names
  • Payment card numbers
  • Expiration dates
  • Credit card verification codes
• This data was accessible from:
  • August 10th till September 16th, 2014 at 113 retail locations
  • July 20th till September 16th, 2014 at 2 retail locations

If you used a credit card at one of the affected stores during the time periods above, then Staples are making free identity theft protection services (credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and a free credit report). You can view what stores were affected by going here. 

The identity theft protection services will be offered by Protect My ID and powered by Experian, you can sign up at the following link: www.protectmyid.com/staples.

[Read: Credit Sesame offers free identity theft insurance]

Final Thoughts

This is becoming an all too common occurrence, I thought this particular data breach was worth highlighting because I know a lot of my readers shop at Staples regularly – especially when they are offering a discount on gift cards.

One of the stores I shop at was affected and I’ve requested a replacement card as a precaution, although I have not seen any fraudulent charges on my card as of yet. This is a major inconvenience and one of the main reasons I’d like to see the adoption of EMV chip technology be fast tracked, I still cannot wrap my head around why it has taken so long for this technology to be adopted when there is such a dramatic reduction in fraud rates.