Panelists answered the following: Are you satisfied with Target’s response to 40 million credit and debit cards being compromised?
Jae Eade: “Absolutely not! I shopped at Target and used my card between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, and they waited three weeks to go public with the security breach. I think Target was grossly negligent in their handling of this problem.”
Ruth Erickson: “They have done all they can do.”
Marty Richman: “There is not much more they can do after the fact and no matter how careful anyone is credit and debit card numbers will always be subject to illegal activities. However, having millions of numbers hijacked from the central system of a major retailer is, obviously, a problem of a different magnitude. Every card user pays for the fraud system wide and there are easy to implement technical solutions, such as daily PIN changes loaded on a read only, non-RFID card, that could prevent much of the problem or at least limit the damages. It would be cheaper in the long run to fix it than to keep eating the cost and tolerating the inconvenience of fraud. ”
Mary Zanger: “No. If I were Target, I would hire all the whistleblowers and cryptologists I could find and put them to work to correct the problem and make sure it never happens again. I would also request an analysis from them that I would pass on to all customers suggesting proper procedures to safeguard their personal information Then I would invite all to a 50 percent discount on all merchandise involving cash transactions.”
