Target Corp.'s computer-security team was alerted when hackers
broke into the retailer's systems during the holiday shopping
season, but decided the warning didn't need to be followed up.
In an emailed statement Thursday, Target said that it is
investigating its response to the episode, which ultimately grew
into one of the largest corporate credit card heists in
history.
The attack began during the Black Friday shopping weekend and
ran for three weeks, compromising 40 million credit and debit card
accounts and personal information up to about 70 million customers.
The acknowledgment raises questions about whether it might have
been headed off.
"With the benefit of hindsight, we are investigating whether, if
different judgments had been made, the outcome may have been
different," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.
In its statement Thursday, Target said "a small amount" of the
hackers' activity was logged and flagged to its security team after
the hackers entered its network. The company said it gets a lot of
alerts, and after evaluating the warning, "the team determined that
it did not warrant immediate follow up."
Target executives have said that it wasn't until they were
contacted by the Justice Department on the evening of Dec. 12 that
they realized the company may have been hit by a security breach.
There were, however, warning signs.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported Thursday that Target computer
security systems supplied by FireEye picked up signs of the hackers
in the company's networks before they shipped out the stolen card
data.
FireEye's equipment on Target's network recorded a "significant
uptick" in malicious code on the retailer's system in the months
before the breach, a person briefed on the investigation said.
FireEye declined to comment on the Bloomberg Businessweek
story.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that at least one
member of Target's computer-security staff had raised concerns
about vulnerabilities in its payment-card system two months or more
before the attack, and that Target and other retailers' systems
were picking up a significant uptick in malware intrusions,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Target notified consumers about the breach on Dec. 19.
Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com
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