Home Depot is investigating a report that customer credit and debit card data was stolen from its systems and put up for sale online.

The retailer issued a statement after Brian Krebs, an independent security reporter, said that multiple banks had pointed to Home Depot as the potential source of a large data breach.

The company said it was working with law enforcement authorities and banks on the matter.

“Protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers,” said Paula Drake, a company spokeswoman.

“If we confirm that a breach has occurred, we will make sure customers are notified immediately.”

Mr Krebs said the potential infiltration of Home Depot’s credit card data might have begun as far back as May.

That could make a Home Depot breach even bigger than that of Target, which began last November and was reported in December.

In that breach, Target said hackers had stolen credit or debit card information from about 40 million customers.

NYT