High-profile data breaches are an increasingly common incident. As a result of numerous large-scale data breaches and increasing rates of counterfeit card fraud, U.S. card issuers are switching to new technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud. Credit card companies set an October 1, 2015, deadline to the switch to chip-enabled cards, which have embedded computer chips that make them more difficult to hack.
So how did we get here? During the peak of the 2013 holiday season, a data breach compromised 40 million customers' credit and debit card information from people who shopped in Target stores. The breach of Target's computer systems also compromised the personal information of as many as 70 million people. Although the exact amount of fraud that resulted from the Target breach is unknown, the breach cost Target at least $148 million in legal, consulting, and credit monitoring services. The hackers have not been identified.