Target Stores Hit by Technical Snafus -- 2d Update
June 16 2019 - 9:54PM
Dow Jones News
By Khadeeja Safdar
Technical problems at Target Corp. stores this weekend
frustrated shoppers, who were unable to make purchases for two
hours on Saturday or use a credit card at some stores on
Sunday.
Target said the two incidents were unrelated, and neither was
caused by a cyberattack. However, both resulted in customer
complaints.
On Saturday, Target's checkout systems suffered a nationwide
outage, which the retailer said was caused by a problem during
routine maintenance of its computer systems. Employees identified
and fixed the problem after roughly two hours.
"After an initial but thorough review, we can confirm that this
was not a data breach or security-related issue, and no guest
information was compromised at any time," a Target spokesman said
on Saturday.
On Sunday, Target said customers were unable to process certain
card payments at some stores for about 90 minutes because NCR
Corp., a vendor it uses to help accept payments, experienced an
issue at one of its data centers. A spokesman for NCR didn't
respond to a request for comment.
"We can confirm that this was not a security-related issue and
no payment information was compromised," a Target spokeswoman said
on Sunday.
Many shoppers took to Twitter to complain of long lines and
confusion at stores. They used the hashtag #TargetDown and pointed
out the poor timing, on Father's Day weekend.
The technical problems are a setback for Target, which has been
investing heavily to remodel its stores and improve its technology
as it battles Walmart Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and others for
customers. In recent quarters, it has reported strong sales growth
boosted by U.S. consumer spending.
In 2013, Target suffered a data breach, which affected as many
as 70 million people and led to an $18.5 million settlement to
resolve an investigation by state prosecutors.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2019 21:39 ET (01:39 GMT)
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