Weak US Credit Card Security Made Target A Juicy Target

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. is the juiciest target for hackers hunting credit card information. And experts say incidents like the recent data theft at Target's stores will get worse before they get better.

That's in part because U.S. credit and debit cards rely on an easy-to-copy magnetic strip on the back of the card, which stores account information.

In most other countries, people carry cards that use digital chips to hold account information.

The breach that exposed the credit card and debit card information of as many as 40 million Target customers is still under investigation. It's unclear how it occurred and what data, exactly, criminals have.

Although experts say no security system is fail-safe, there are l measures companies can take to protect against these attacks.

Thankfully, individual customers are not on the hook for fraudulent charges that result from security breaches. But such attacks do raise costs -- and, likely, fees for all customers.