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Reporter: The giant retailer Target confirmed today that hackers stole encrypted pin numbers during a major data breach that began at Thanksgiving. Some 40 million accounts are potentially affected. Target said it believes the encryption will keep the personal identification numbers safe. We get more now from Jim Finkle of the Reuters news service in Boston. Jim Finkle, welcome. First of all, what is the risk with the theft of these pin numbers? How is that different from losing other credit information?
Interviewee: You know, Judy, there may actually be no additional risk, because as you mentioned , the numbers are encrypted. The encryption algorithms that they use are so sophisticated that nobody can break them. The issue here, I think, that this highlights is a couple of things. Target originally gave us the impression that pins were not taken, encrypted or not. So that suggests that either they didn’t have a handle as to what happened or they weren’t being completely forthright.
Reporter: And why would that be?
Interviewee: I can think that—well, there’s a couple of reasons. First of all, it is very difficult to figure out what happened in a breach of this size. But in terms of not being forthright, you know, it was the Christmas holiday season. And I think they wanted to keep their—they didn’t want to alarm customers. They worried about the potential litigation. And they were also worried about regulatory and congressional investigations.
Reporter: And there’s still other information, though, that was stolen, in addition to these pin numbers that is out there.
Interviewee: Yes, sure. All of the information on the magnetic stripe on the back of your credit card was stolen. And that can be used to create fake credit cards. Now, it’s possible that, you know, some people’s credit—not credit card—bank accounts have been drained, and we’re still trying to figure out how that happened. It may be that they got the pin numbers another way. You know, with a pin number, you can access somebody’s bank account. So, you know, what I was talking about at the beginning about them not having all the information, about them not being forthright, we still have to find out what’s going on with that.
Reporter: And, just quickly, what should Target customers be doing right now?
Interviewee: If you’ve gotten notification that your bank account or credit card was compromised, I would ask the bank to replace it. Some of them are saying that’s not necessary, but I’ve been told by everybody who is knowledgeable that it’s what you should do.
Reporter: Jim Finkle with Reuters, we thank you.
Interviewee: Thank you.