The world’s biggest credit card data security breach has occurred and possibilities exist for bigger frauds to happen.

Encrypted files stolen by sophisticated computer hackers exposed credit and debit cards details of 44.7 million people to illegal transactions, most of which may never be detected.

The actual defrauded amount may never get tabulated because by the time the fraud was detected, much of the old data was deleted and many of the exposed customers are considered to have acquired new cards, burying the old ones.

The Trans - Atlantic breach took place in July 2005 and went unnoticed till December 2006.

Who is responsible?

The breach took place at TJ Maxx company’s British headquarters in Wat-ford, Hertfordshire; Marshalls and HomeGoods shops in the US; Puerto Rico, Bob’s Stores in the US, and Winners and HomeSense shops in Canada.

A Visa Europe spokesman was quoted by Times Online, ‘All the major card brands accepted by the retailer are affected and Visa USA is working with law enforcement and TJX to investigate.’

TJX is a leading American company with a market cap of $ 12 billion and owns over 2,500 apparel and home fashion stores globally.

The computer hackers are on the loose and investigative agencies will have to break many dead ends to get at them.

However, the responsibility of accounting for any fraudulent payments made wrests with banks and the visa card agencies but the police is only approached if the banks are able to detect any illegal transactions.

In such a crazy maze, the credit card holder is not only duped but is bogged in getting to the right agency to register a complaint about the financial breach of trust.

Shareholder confidence is shaken and some brave hearts have sued the company for the data breach.

Are Credit Cards / E-transactions Safe?

Thefts of secured data have once again shown the vulnerability of the financial systems wired on the World Wide Web.

Credit cards are considered highly vulnerable to fraud opportunities and there is a huge black market dealing in stolen credit cards.

Investigative agencies do not try and track all reported frauds. The Federal Bureau of Investigation only prosecutes cases involving an amount exceeding $ 5,000 only.

Internet frauds are usually done through stolen credit card information, which mostly is acquired by copying information from retailers.

Employees of companies who handle millions of credit card accounts are security prone to selling the sensitive information.

There have been efforts to improve security of remote purchasing by credit cards but computer hackers and data stealing often leaves millions of customers vulnerable.64826