Home Depot: 56 million cards involved in hack

In the two weeks since Home Depot first announced it was investigating a possible data breach at its stores, a whole lot of information has come to light.

The retailer confirmed that malware has been present in its payment systems since April. Thursday, the company released a statement in which it confirmed just how many customers’ payment cards could be at risk: 56 million.

The statement reads, in part:

To protect customer data until the malware was eliminated, any terminals identified with malware were taken out of service, and the company quickly put in place other security enhancements. The hackers’ method of entry has been closed off, the malware has been eliminated from the company’s systems, and the company has rolled out enhanced encryption of payment data to all U.S. stores.

Like the numerous other brands that have suffered data breaches in the last 12 months, Home Depot has set up a hotline for customers to call to set up free credit monitoring.