via The Consumerist via the Boston Globe:

“TJX Cos. said today that the unauthorized intrusion into its computer system occurred nearly a year earlier than it previously believed.

The Framingham operator of such offprice retail chains as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls offered additional details about a data breach it first disclosed last month.

TJX said today in a statement: “While the company previously believed that the intrusion took place only from May 2006 to January 2007, TJX now believes its computer systems was also intruded upon in July 2005 and on various subsequent dates in 2005. TJX continues to believe there was no compromise of customer data after-mid December 2006.”

This is the very reason you have to check your credit card billing statements very carefully every month. A lot of times this information gets sold in bulk, and to confirm the validity of the “product” the purchaser will run through some small charges first. Noticing these small charges could be the difference in your bank account being drained (if you use a check card) or not. Thankfully most banks have stepped up and will work with the customer to replace the funds, or not stack on overdraft fees and the like.

Personally my check card number has been used at least 3 times, my business credit card a few times as well. Some of those thefts I believe were actually from a person in a restaurant or gas station copying my information down; unfortunately I never heard the disposition of any of those issues since it’s usually the card processor that does the investigation.

It just goes to show you, information security is here to stay. Companies need to realize that security is no longer a “nice to have” and is a “must have”.

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