70 Million Customers Affected by Target Security Breach

The reach of Target's security breach involves more customers than first reported.

According to investigators, the personal information of up to 70 million Target customer has been stolen. That's up from the original 40 million first reported.  Last year between November 27 and December 15, hackers stole personal information from customers who used credit or debit cards, including their name, card number, expiration date and the three-digit security code.

Elizabeth Baker is a visiting assistant professor of business at Wake Forest University. She says Target ignored one basic security rule that made it vulnerable to hackers. “They stored the 3-digit security code on your card on their data bases. And that code is never supposed to be stored anywhere," says Baker. "That's part of the safety and security standards that you have to uphold in order to use the Visa and MasterCard credit system.”

The retailer is contacting customers impacted by this breach. It says they will have zero liability for the cost of any fraudulent charges arising from this incident. Target is also offering one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to all guests who shopped in any of their U.S. stores. Customers have until March to enroll.