Home Depot hackers also stole millions of email addresses

Home Depot Inc. said hackers got into its systems last April by stealing a password from a vendor, opening a tiny hole that grew into the biggest retail-credit-card breach on record. On Thursday, the company announced the breach was worse than earlier thought. In addition to the 56 million credit-card accounts that were compromised, Home Depot now says around 53 million customer email addresses were stolen as well. Those addresses are by their nature semipublic, but they can be used by hackers hoping to trick people into giving away more sensitive information, and Home Depot warned its customers to be on guard. The findings—which come after more than two months of investigations by the company, law-enforcement agents and hundreds of security personnel—show the home-improvement retailer fell victim to the same type of infiltration tactics as Target Corp. , where hackers gained access last year via a Pennsylvania-based refrigeration contractor’s electronic billing account.