TK Maxx ripped off

TJX, the owner of TK Maxx have had at least 45.7 million credit card account details ripped off by a hacker, revealed in a statement made to US regulators.

This may have affected customers in the UK and Ireland, and even though the company says that at least 75% of the cards have expired it's still a huge blunder and deserves a very large fine from the appropriate bodies.

The company said:

"We don't know what was in those files - the technology the hacker used prevents TJX from knowing, and also the fact that TJX system routinely deletes files."

Apacs emphasised the scale of the issue:

Sandra Quinn from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) told the BBC there had been a "massive" compromise of security - on a scale not seen before.