Target Breach Could Affect 121,000 Hawaii Shoppers

As many as 121,000 Hawaii residents may have been affected by the recent data breach at Target, a state official said today.

Bruce Kim, executive director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection, said the state is working with Target to ensure that consumers are not held liable for fraudulent purchases resulting from the hacking of financial information.

Still, Kim said Hawaii consumers who shopped at Target during the breach period should take precautions to prevent their accounts from being used by monitoring their bank and credit card statements and reporting suspicious activities to their bank or card company.

“Keep your guard up for the next year because it may take time for any fraudulent transactions to appear,” he said.

Target earlier this month informed the public that about 40 million credit and debit accounts were compromised in a nation-wide data breach. The compromised information was related to purchases made at company stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

Target officials on Friday also confirmed on its website that the hackers were able to access some of the personal identification numbers or PINs from the debit cards used in its stores.

Kim said many of the banks and credit unions in the islands have been on alert since the news of the breach.

Target has agreed to free credit report monitoring for one year for all cardholders affected by the breach.

Businesses are required by Hawaii law to notify customers of any security breach involving personal information in any form following discovery of the breach.

Hawaii law also requires businesses to notify the Office of Consumer Protection about the breach without unreasonable delay as well as information on the timing, distribution and content of the notices sent by the business to affected persons.