Last month, Target confirmed that many of its stores were hit with a widespread data breach that stole information from 40 million Americans during the holiday shopping season.
Since then, reports have stated that the problem might impact over 110 million customers, and that it isn't the only retailer going through this difficult time. Anonymous sources spoke with two reporters from Reuters, affirming that smaller breaches occurred at similar stores in 2013, but these companies have not publicly confirmed such.
On the other hand, luxury retailer Neiman Marcus recently confirmed it was a victim of a data breach, but it was unable to confirm if the method of attack was similar to Target's.
"They also said that while they suspect the perpetrators may be the same as those who launched the Target attack, they cannot be sure because they are still trying to find the culprits behind all of the security breaches," Reuters reported.
In regards to Target's second round of breaches, personal information like email addresses, telephone numbers, mailing addresses and names were removed from the encrypted system.
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel recently had his first interview on the matter on CNBC and explained that the discount retailer is doing everything it can to maintain business continuity, while instilling consumer confidence in their stores again.
"We know that our guests' trust in us is shaken," Steinhafel explained, "but we also know they love our stores, they love our brand, and we're going to learn from this experience and work really hard to become an even better retailer over time."
Customers who were affected by the breach have three months to register for free credit monitoring services and report on fraudulent charges to the business, as well as their bank or credit card providers.
Business continuity consultants who specialize in disaster recovery efforts can help organizations bounce back from a data breach. This way, business owners who don't want to publicly announce such will have the guidance and tools to solve such problems without being in the public eye.