Hack, Hack, Cough, Cough

Another week, another week of retail hacking reported.

This week it was reported that Neiman Marcus was also the victim of a breach. While I have never visited this upscale retailer, it is obvious that the hacker wanted to attract the upper class people that shop with this company. There have been reports that these are related, but I honestly doubt that.

A couple of days ago, Reuters reported that at least 3 other unnamed retailers have also been hit as well. Who these companies are is a mystery, but I think these companies should man up and admit they too were victims.

Oh excuse me, WE ARE THE VICTIMS, NOT THE STORES!

There is absolutely NO excuse that any retailer should have that they should not come forward and admit when something has gone awry in regards to customer information. Nowadays, companies should do the responsible thing and admit their faults.

Let’s not forget that both grocery store chain Hannaford and TJX Companies have both been hit in recent years and neither of these companies have gone out of business or seem to have taken a significant hit in their sales in recent years.

If companies are afraid that they will lose sales as Target has during the latter Christmas holiday season, then they don’t belong in business. Period. Retail is no longer for the weak at heart as competition from online retailers have stolen a lot of brick and mortar’s thunder.

On an unrelated note, JCPenney announced that it was closing 33 stores and eliminating 2000 jobs. It seems odd for this move as they wish to lower their debt on underperforming stores especially this close after the first of the year. Could they be one of the three retailers cloaked in mystery? I would not be surprised if they were not one of them.

It seems to me that retailers have got to stop collecting data on their customers. They have no choice in this anymore especially given the additional 70 million people affected by a second Target breach not related to shoppers in November and December of last year.

Companies also have to update their privacy policies to say what data is collected and how it is used and stored. Yes, it is exhaustive and will make them angry, but nowadays we as customers have no choice anymore.

Certainly as I have mentioned previously, Staples stores customer information regarding credit cards to find email addresses even if the credit card name doesn’t match the in-between rewards card that was never used in the transaction. The bad thing is that they deny any wrongdoing in typical Staples manner.

So is Staples one of the mystery 3? I would not be the least bit surprised. Only time will tell.