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By Mark Memmott

Target Corp. that there was a massive security breach of its customers’ credit and debit card accounts starting the day before Thanksgiving and extending at least to Dec. 15 — the heart of the holiday shopping season.

“Approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted,” the retailer said. The hacking involved not only Target-issued cards but those from other issuers as well. The size of the breach puts it in the upper echelon of recent hackings into consumers’ payment accounts. :

“One of the biggest incidents to hit the industry took place in 2007, when thieves stole card numbers and personal data on up to 90 million cards belonging to people who had shopped at stores owned by TJX, parent of T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and other discount chains.

“In July, federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges in an ongoing investigation of a group of people believed to have stolen more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers from companies including J.C. Penney Co., 7-Eleven, Nasdaq OMX Group, JetBlue Inc. and others over several years.”

The data breach at Target was Brian Krebs , an independent journalist who focuses on security news and blogs at Krebs Security.

via Breach At Target Stores May Affect 40 Million Card Accounts : The Two-Way : NPR.