Although Neiman Marcus was notified mid-December about the breach, it did not go public until weeks later. It appears this breach is related to the same hackers who stole data from Target. A forensic team confirmed the breach and that unauthorized purchases were made over the holidays. Neiman Marcus has not released how many customers may be affected and believes the numbers could be higher than first anticipated as was the case with Target. The secret service is assisting the upscale retailer, as they are with Target.
January 11th, Reuters reported that Target and Neiman Marcus are not the only retailers affected by the breach. It may be that breaches on at least three other retailers in the U.S. have occurred using similar techniques. Investigators believe these earlier attacks were trial runs to perfect newer hacking techniques to then use them on Target and Neiman Marcus. Law enforcement sources suspect the ring leaders are from Eastern Europe, which is where most big cyber-crime cases have been hatched over the past decade.
January 12th, Neiman Marcus tweeted: “We are taking steps, where possible, to notify customers whose cards we know were used fraudulently after purchasing at our stores.”
