Home Depot Inc.’s share price down, investigates possible credit- and debit-card data breach

Home Depot Inc, the biggest home-improvement chain in the US, is working in collaboration with banks and law enforcement agencies to investigate a potential breach of customer credit- or debit-card data.

Ms. Paula Drake, who is a spokeswoman of the company said in a statement that was cited by the Wall Street Journal: “Protecting our customers information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers.”

The company said it was monitoring and probing “unusual activity”, but did not disclose further details. The company also shared that if a breach was proven, its customers will be notified immediately.

The possible data breach was first reported by the cyber security analyst Brian Krebs in a blog post, saying that the eventual theft of credit- and debit-card data could be bigger than the theft of 40 million-card breach at Target earlier in 2014.

The potential breach is the latest one in a series of similar attacks on retail and restaurant chains including Target Corp., Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. and P.F. Changs China Bistro. In addition, an investigation of the series of cyber attacks against financial institutions such as the largest bank by assets in the U.S. – JPMorgan Chase has been launched recently by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service.

Home Depot Inc. was 2.51% down to close at $91.15 per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +22.37% and valuing the company at $125.84 billion. According to CNN Money, the 26 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Home Depot Inc. have a median target of $98.00, with a high estimate of $104.00 and a low estimate of $78.00. The median estimate represents a +7.52% increase from the last price of $91.15.