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Home Depot says 56M credit, debit cards compromised

Fifty-six million unique payment cards for Home Depot customers were stolen during the cyber-attack that took place between April and September of this year.

By Heather Records

ATLANTA, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The Home Depot now estimates around 56 million credit and debit cards were stolen in a data breach.

That makes this breach larger than the Target hack in which 40 million customers had their credit and debit card information stolen.

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In a news release, the company said the investigation into the breach revealed the "criminals used unique, custom-built malware to evade detection. The malware had not been seen previously in other attacks, according to Home Depot's security partners."

The home improvement store also said the software has been removed.

The investigation into the data breach started on Sept. 2. Home Depot confirmed customer information was stolen less than a week later.

"We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and anxiety this has caused, and want to reassure them that they will not be liable for fraudulent charges," Frank Blake, chairman and CEO, said.

Home Depot is offering free credit monitoring to all customers who shopped at the store -- either in the U.S. or Canada -- from April 2014 on.

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