Home Depot Inc. share price down, confirms computer system breach at more than 2 000 stores

The biggest home-improvement chain – Home Depot Inc. made an official statement and confirmed a computer system breach at nearly 2 200 of its stores located in the U.S. and Canada. According to the companys statement, there is no proof that debit-card PINs have been compromised at the time of the breach.

The number of eventually affected customers was not disclosed by Home Depot, which shared that there is an ongoing investigation primarily focused on purchases made since April 2014. Still, the company explained that the breach did not affect customers, who placed online purchases.

“We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred,” said Mr. Frank Blake, chairman and chief executive, in a statement that was cited by the Financial Times.

The U.S.-based home-improvement chain shared that it is working aggressively in order to root out the malware that infected its data systems and protect its customer information. The affirmation comes only a week after banks and law enforcement reported to Home Depot that its payment data systems may have been subject to a cyber attack.

Since receiving the records, the company has been working in collaboration with the Secret Service, banks and the computer security companies Symantec and Fishnet Security in order to determine if there has actually been a breach. In addition, Home Depot is also offering some identity protection services and credit monitoring for free for the customers, who have used their credit- or debit-cards in its stores since April 2014.

“I don’t know why the retailers aren’t waking up and doing something about” their vulnerabilities, Tomer Weingarten, chief executive officer of online security firm SentinelOne in Mountain View, California, said in a phone interview for Bloomberg. “It seems like Target should have been a very big wake-up call.”

Home Depot Inc. fell by 0.86% on Monday in New York to close at $90.82 per share, marking a one-year change of +24.92%. The company is valued at $122.24 billion. According to CNN Money, the 26 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Home Depot Inc. have a median target of $98.50, with a high estimate of $104.00 and a low estimate of $78.00. The median estimate represents a +8.46% increase from the last price of $90.82.