Home Depot: 56 Million Cards Compromised

Home Depot's data breach has many consumers worried. If you've used a credit card at Home Depot since April of this year, there is a chance you have been compromised. According to Home Depot, 56 million cards were affected, which is the largest breach of 2014.

Via a press release, we learn quite a bit about the Home Depot data grab. The Atlanta-based company starts by noting the malware has been completely removed from their establishments, and they began looking into the breach on September 2, immediately after banking partners and law enforcement informed them of a possible issue.

Home Depot also says the malware was custom-built (ironic for a DIY home improvement store), and not seen in any other known hack. They didn't say if it was an offshoot of the malware used in the Target breach, as was previously reported.

Home Depot also confirms that no PINs were compromised in the breach. Moving forward, Home Depot will encrypt payment data that travels through their system "to make it unreadable and virtually useless to hackers".

All compromised point-of-sale terminals in the US have been swapped out, with the project being completed on September 13. Canadian Home Depot locations will see their new terminals in early 2015.

Source: Home Depot