Target Corp. has reportedly admitted that customers' PIN data was breached during a recent hack attack, but has insisted that the encrypted PIN numbers are safe and secure.
The retailer company said that customers' debit card accounts have not been compromised due to the encrypted PIN numbers being taken.
According to ABC News, the data breach is speculated to have affected as many as 40 million customers between November 27 and December 15.
The company earlier denied reports of debit card PIN data being compromised, but after further investigations, it confirmed that the strongly encrypted PIN data was removed.
Target said that the PIN information was fully encrypted at the keypad, remained encrypted within our system, and remained encrypted when it was removed from our systems, adding that it does not store or have access to the specific encryption keys.