From: 560 WGAN News Radio
By Mark Hosenball and Ros Krasny
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two U.S. senators were seeking answers on Tuesday from the chief executive of Target Corp about the company’s response to the hacking of credit and debit cards of millions of its customers during the holiday shopping season.
“We ask that Target’s information-security officials provide a briefing to committee staff regarding your company’s investigation and latest findings,” said John Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Claire McCaskill, who heads a Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection.
The Democratic senators’ Jan. 10 letter to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel was released on Tuesday, the latest in a growing chorus of calls by lawmakers and others for inquiries into the hacking of the No. 3 U.S. retailer.
“We have received the chairmen’s letter and are continuing to work with them and other elected officials to keep them informed and updated as our investigation continues,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in an email to Reuters.
Shortly afterwards, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought a hearing on the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records containing customer information.
Representative Elijah Cummings said the committee’s focus since October has been investigating the security of the federal government’s health insurance website, HealthCare.gov, which has not been breached.
He urged the committee chairman, Republican Darrell Issa, who made a fortune as head of a company that makes car alarms and other automotive security devices, to turn his attention to Target.
“In addition to serving the interests of millions of American consumers affected by this breach, I believe the committee could learn from these witnesses about their failures, successes and best practices in order to better secure our federal information technology systems,” Cummings wrote.
An aide to Issa told Reuters the committee was likely to “do some follow up” on the Target issue.
Leave a Reply