Home Depot Customer Data Leaked Again
The Home Depot is currently investigating how and why a spreadsheet listing about 8,000 customers, along with their transaction data and a range of personal information, was posted for an unknown amount of time on a Home Depot website. No financial data was part of the list, which didn't compare with the 2014 data breach in which hackers installed software that provided them with personal and financial information for 56 million Home Depot customers. Company spokesman Stephen Holmes said the information was taken down as soon as it was discovered, although he wasn’t sure exactly when that occurred. The information was posted online through a combination of technical glitch and human error, Holmes said, and there has been no indication thus far that anyone retrieved and misused the information.
Total Retail's Take: While this particular data exposure incident can in no way be compared to The Home Depot’s data breach in 2014, it still is a cause for concern for customers of the home improvement retailer. For example, how frequently do these types of breaches happen? Do companies have any obligation to tell consumers if their data is exposed this way? And perhaps most important for the people whose names and information was listed in these documents: Just how potentially damaging could this data be if it fell into the wrong hands? Home Depot needs to give its customers answers.
