Forever 21 Reports Thousands of Cards Compromised in Data Breach

It appears another company has been affected in the TJX security breach that was reported back in August. Nearly 99,000 payment cards used at Forever 21 stores may have been compromised during data thefts beginning back in 2004. The company released a statement saying that they discovered the thefts after being notified by the U.S. Department of Justice on August 5. They did not, however, say why they waited over a month to announce this.

Forever 21 was notified that they were among the companies victimized in the TJX data breach that lead to the arrest of 11 suspects. They received a disk containing the potentially compromised data. Later forensic evidence revealed that more than 98,000 credit and debit card numbers had been illegally accessed.

Forever 21 pointed out that nearly half of the illegally accessed card numbers are either inactive or expired. While this may be true, this doesn't explain why Forever 21 waited so long to disclose this information when other companies involved in the breach announced it back in August.