The Latest in IT Security

Target Corp, which suffered a massive data breach during the holiday shopping season, is speeding up a $100 million program to implement the use of chip-enabled smart cards to protect against cyber theft, a senior company executive said. In an opinion piece on Monday in the Hill newspaper on the eve of his much-awaited appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said the retailers goal was to have the technology in place by early 2015, more than six months ahead of schedule. He said the United States had been slow to develop the technology, which was already in wide use in other parts of the world. The enhanced smart cards contain tiny microprocessor chips that encrypt personal data shared with sales terminals used by merchants.