September 9, 2014: The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, on Monday confirmed that its payment data systems have been breached, which could potentially impact customers using payment cards at its US and Canadian stores. There is no evidence that the breach has impacted stores in Mexico or customers who shopped online at HomeDepot.com.

While the company continues to determine the full scope, scale and impact of the breach, there is no evidence that debit PIN numbers were compromised.

Home Depot’s investigation is focused on April forward, and the company has taken aggressive steps to address the malware and protect customer data. The Home Depot is offering free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to any customer who used a payment card at a Home Depot store in 2014, from April on.

“We apologise for the frustration and anxiety this causes our customers, and I want to thank them for their patience and support as we work through this issue,” said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO. “We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred. It’s important to emphasise that no customers will be responsible for fraudulent charges to their accounts.”

The investigation began on September 2, immediately after the company received reports from its banking partners and law enforcement that criminals may have hacked its payment data systems.

Since then, the company’s internal IT security team has been working round-the-clock with leading IT security firms, its banking partners and the Secret Service to rapidly gather facts and provide information to customers.

Responding to the increasing threat of cyber-attacks on the retail industry, The Home Depot previously confirmed it will roll out EMV ‘Chip and PIN’ to all US stores by the end of this year, well in advance of the October 2015 deadline established by the payments industry.

The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,266 retail stores in all 50 states in the US, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2013, it had sales of $78.8 billion and earnings of $5.4 billion. The Company employs more than 300,000 associates.

Source: The Home Depot

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