--- description: If you've ever used a credit card, Businessweek's long story on the Target data breach makes for chilling but rewarding reading. title: How Target Made Itself a Target for Hackers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38939f0414e58994/6986855c06f2c1279732ddd1/target.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How Target Made Itself a Target for Hackers by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 6:48 PM CUT  Shoppers leave a retail Target on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, in Hackensack, N.J. Target says that about 40 million credit and debit card accounts customers may have been affected by a data breach that occurred at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15\. (AP Photo/Northjersey.com, Amy Newman) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDIT Shoppers leave a retail Target on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, in Hackensack, N.J. Target says that about 40 million credit and debit card accounts customers may have been affected by a data breach that occurred at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15\. (AP Photo/Northjersey.com, Amy Newman) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDITAmy Newman—AP by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 6:48 PM CUT If you’ve ever used a credit card at Target — or, really, anywhere else — Businessweek’s [long story on the Target data breach](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/target-missed-alarms-in-epic-hack-of-credit-card-data "undefined"), by Michael Riley, Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence and Carol Matlack, makes for chilling but rewarding reading. Based in part on interviews with former Target employees, it says that the malware the attackers used to hack the retail chain’s point-of-sale system wasn’t all that sophisticated — and that the company’s security software detected something was amiss, and could have been set to block the attack without human intervention. But Target opted to turn off this option, and the humans in charge of protecting data didn’t intervene. (The fact that a key employee had recently left and hadn’t been replaced may not have helped.) A few details about the heist: --- > “” --- Businessweek’s piece also delves into the likely suspects behind the breach and why stealing credit-card information and other personal data is such a rewarding business to be in. I hope this doesn’t end up being the definitive article on all this — there’s still a lot we don’t know, and Target itself isn’t really talking — but it’s a remarkable piece of reporting nonetheless. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/23786/target-data-breach/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/23786/target-data-breach/"},"headline":"How Target Made Itself a Target for Hackers","datePublished":"2014-03-13T18:48:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:43.436Z","description":"Businessweek has the spine-tingling details.","url":"https://time.com/23786/target-data-breach/","keywords":["Tech","Target","Technologizer","Hacking","Security","hacks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38939f0414e58994/6986855c06f2c1279732ddd1/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry McCracken","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/harry-mccracken/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38939f0414e58994/6986855c06f2c1279732ddd1/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Shoppers leave a retail Target on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, in Hackensack, N.J.","caption":"Shoppers leave a retail Target on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, in Hackensack, N.J.","creditText":"Amy Newman—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/23786/target-data-breach/","name":"How Target Made Itself a Target for Hackers"}}]}] ```