WASHINGTON – Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken will question Target Corp.'s chief financial officer about the company's massive data theft at a Feb. 4 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
CFO John Mulligan will be the first of five witnesses who will discuss "Privacy in the Digital Age: Preventing Data Breaches and Combating Cybercrime."
Mulligan is expected to brief the panel on the details of the data breach, in which computer hackers tapped Target's computer system and stole data on tens of millions of customers.
Klobuchar and Franken are expected to ask about technology improvements that could thwart future attacks, as well as procedures for telling customers when their personal information has been compromised.
Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, will join Mulligan in offering testimony, along with representatives from the Consumers Union, the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The data breach, one of the largest in U.S. history, has captured national attention and concern for the integrity of credit and debit card transactions generally.
A similar attack on Neiman Marcus affected many fewer people, but has led to thousands of cases of credit card fraud. The impact of the Target theft has not been quantified.
The theft occurred during the Christmas shopping season. Its disclosure has driven down business at Target and hurt the company's stock price, and Target announced layoffs this week.
