Holder Confirms DOJ Is Investigating Target Data Breach

Holder Confirms DOJ Is Investigating Target Data Breach

In Talk Before Senate Committee, Attorney General's Comments Are First Official Confirmation of Probe

By ANDREW GROSSMAN
Jan. 29, 2014 11:24 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed Wednesday that the Justice Department is investigating the data breach that took place late last year at Target Corp.TGT -0.88%

Target has said credit card information, email addresses and other data belonging to up to 70 million customers were taken by hackers in the holiday shopping-season attack. It previously disclosed the Justice Department investigation in December, but Mr. Holder's confirmation before a Senate committee Wednesday marks the first official comment on the probe.

"We are committed to working to find not only the perpetrators of these sorts of data breaches but also any individuals and groups who exploit that data via credit-card fraud," Mr. Holder said, according to his prepared remarks.

The U.S. Secret Service and some state officials are also investigating the breach.

Write to Andrew Grossman at andrew.grossman@wsj.com

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