The threat of credit card information theft from retailers continues to surge. In the most recent high-profile incident, Home Depot revealed on Sept. 8 that its payment data systems were breached. At press time, the retailer had not revealed how many customers were impacted, but a report by The New York Times estimated that as many as 60 million customers could be affected by the breach.
The data breach super retailer Target suffered last December, during three weeks of the holiday season, resulted in 40 million card numbers and 70 million customer records being stolen. In contrast, Home Depot’s breach includes customer credit card information dating back to April—a possible five-month span of theft.
Essentially, anyone who used a credit card to pay at Home Depot since April might be a victim of the caper, which was triggered via malware. This could have a major impact on professional contractors who account for as much as 40% of Home Depot’s total sales. Driven by news of the high-profile hack, some dealers aren’t wasting time in transitioning to the new payment system.
With six locations and headquartered in the heart of Sonoma County’s wine country, HLC, Inc., is implementing a $250,000 computer system upgrade that includes the complete replacement of its hardware and software. Within the upgrade is the purchase of new credit card processors that are EMV compliant.
“We don’t have our heads buried in the sand and we are aware of the risks,” says Eric Ziedrich, owner and president of HLC.
The company centralizes its credit card processing through just two of its locations with data processing handled off-site by a third-party provider. “We are assured that the steps we have taken to protect ourselves are as good as what is readily available,” Ziedrich says.
