By Neal O'Farrell, Security and Identity Theft Expert for CreditSesame.com
If the Home Depot breach turns out to be as bad or worse than the Target breach, certain things will be unavoidable for the home improvement giant. But there are some things the company can do to help reduce the short and long term impact and cost.
Americans are renowned and admired the world over for their capacity to forgive, and the quicker consumers forgive Home Depot, the greater the chance Home Depot has to reduce the final cost of this (possible) major breach of trust. But forgiveness comes with a price, and that price is a full confession and genuine contrition.
Mea Maxima Culpa
If it turns out that this breach could reasonably have been prevented, the mob is going to be baying. The best chance Home Depot has of quelling the calls for blood and heads is a major Mea Maxima Culpa.
Expose consumers to enough breaches and they start learning. One of the things they learn is how canned, insincere, misleading and blame-pushing most of the PR-driven responses can be. A good CEO can get a great head start on rebuilding trust and getting back to business if he or she responds in the right way and at the right time.
If I were Home Depot:
- Have the CEO say that he's dropping everything else he's doing right now so he can focus completely on what matters most -- the trust and safety of his customers. If your building is burning down, don't delegate the response. Lead it.
If you have ever shopped at Home Depot:
- If you used a credit card or Home Depot card, keep an eye on your statements. You won't be liable for any fraudulent charges so don't panic if they pop up.
Even if you didn't shop at Home Depot:
- Be suspicious of any emails in the coming days and months that claim to be from Home Depot or about the breach. Hackers and spammers are going to have a field day with all the media coverage.
By doing all these simple things, you're actually making things harder for the thieves. Because the more locked-down and vigilant you are, the harder it becomes for these thieves to use the information against you.
Neal O'Farrell is one of the most experienced consumer security experts on the planet. Over the last 30 years he has advised governments, intelligence agencies, Fortune 500 companies and millions of consumers on identity protection, cybersecurity, and privacy. As Executive Director of the Identity Theft Council, Neal has personally counseled thousands of identity theft victims, taken on cases referred to him by the FBI and Secret Service, and interviewed some of the nation's most notorious identity thieves.