I came across this breaking story (more links below) regarding a security breach at the parent company of TK Maxx, TJX, which could impact customers who have shopped in Irish TK Maxx stores since 2003.

It would be interesting to know if TJX were compliant with the PCI Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which requires all entities handling credit and debit card data to implement different levels of security measures based on the number of transactions they process each year.  Regardless though, if companies are genuinely concerned about protecting the confidential information entrusted to them by their customers they should really be encrypting that data.

TJX CEO Ben Cammarata has written a letter to customers and gives details of how Irish customers can contact TK Maxx regarding their cards.

If you are concerned about how secure your own network security is, then don’t forget to try our free vulnerability scan provided in partnership with Qualys.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070117005971&newsLang=en
http://www2.csoonline.com/blog_view.html?CID=28255
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/NEWS/701170343/1002/BUSINESS
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9008418&source=rss_topic17