Evan Schuman

As I look back at the 10 months of this soap opera known as the TJX data breach—the biggest ever, in case someone forgot—I keep being reminded of a wonderful piece of dialogue in the 1990s TV show “The West Wing.” One of the characters—a White House deputy communications director named Sam Seaborn—was arguing with […]

Although he wants some more time to think about it, U.S. District Court Judge William Young indicated that he would likely approve TJXs revised $200 million consumer settlement of the nations worst data breach. After hearing about a revised proposed settlement that supplements $30 in-store vouchers with $15 checks—along with other changes, such as increasing […]

Hours before a federal judge demanded that TJX address key concerns about its proposed settlement, the merchant behind the biggest retail data breach ever agreed to some key changes, including offering a cash alternative to its voucher offer. The biggest objection to the initial proposed settlement had been that consumer victims were only offered $30 […]

Major retailers, just like any large business, do not like being told by partners what they can and cant do. But when the credit cards told merchants that they must retain credit card information to deal with returns and chargebacks, they balked, but then agreed. Like any good business, they tried taking an unpleasant requirement […]

Retailings most powerful lobby is launching a campaign to change the way that credit cards and retailers interact. Conceding that the PCI (Payment Card Industry) procedures have not been effective at stopping massive retail breaches, David Hogan, CIO of the National Retail Federation, is pushing for a radical change in tactics, one that will require […]

When U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young told lawyers Sept. 27 that he had serious concerns about the proposed TJX settlement, he also took issue with the part that would allow for consumers to turn the vouchers into cash by selling them. In a courtroom exchange, TJX attorney Harvey J. Wolkoff argued that there […]

In an effort to force online shoppers to use their online tools—and only their online tools—Walmart.com has decided to continue its online telephone help desk, but—I swear Im not making this up—not tell anyone the phone number. In the most literal example of the “dont call us, well call you” attitude Ive seen in quite […]

When a federal court judge issued rulings Oct. 2 that the $60 billion retailer Target needed to stand trial on charges that its Web site is not sufficiently accessible to visually-impaired shoppers, it sent a strong signal to much of the e-commerce space. Target has long been the most prominent opponent of forcing e-commerce site […]

When a PCI audit firm released its annual summary of PCI audit weaknesses, a comparison with the prior year showed retailers are still struggling with the same issues. For 2007, the most frequently failed credit card security requirements are regular testing, secure applications, protecting data and enforcing unique user IDs, according to a Sept. 17 […]

Consumers trying to make purchases from the Walmart.com Web site wont be able to phone for help anymore. Pointing to improvements to the Web site, Wal-Mart officials said phone support is no longer needed and is shutting it down. Critics label the move as a reckless act of cost-cutting that will quickly haunt Wal-Mart. The […]

When it comes to global downtime, Google doesnt seem to play favorites. Among 32 key countries Google plays in locally, its home country of the United States came in near the bottom, in position 26, with 31 minutes of downtime from Sept. 1, 2006, to Sept. 1, 2007, according to Web performance survey results released […]

The typical American business executive likes incremental changes, like, perhaps, an 18 percent speed increase. Or maybe a little bit more efficiency over here, and some additional functionality over there. PowerPoint slides to the contrary, a paradigm shift is the last one thing most executives honestly want because, to the typical executive with a large […]