Home Depot Security Breach [A news anchor reports from a news room at CBS.] NEWS ANCHOR: Now to what could be one of the biggest data breaches ever to hit a major retailer. This morning, Home Depot is investigating whether its customers credit and debit cards were exposed. [A large screen in the news room displays images of several different news headlines. The headline of the Wall Street Journal Reads "Home Depot Investigates Possible Payment Card Data Breach" with an image of a cashier and a customer at a checkout line in a Home Depot store. The headline from USA Today reads "Home Depot's credit cards may have been hacked." The headline from The New York Times reads "Home Depot Investigates a Possible Data Breach". The headline from Bloomberg reads "Home Depot's Suspected Breach Adds Security Pressure" with a picture of a man walking down the aisle of a Home Depot store.] NEWS ANCHOR: It's not clear how many stores or shoppers could be involved. But experts say, it could be larger than the breach that affected 40 million shoppers at Target last year. In a statement, Home Depot says, protecting our customers information is something we take extremely seriously. CBS News contributor and analyst Melody Hobson is in Chicago. Melody, good morning. MELODY HOBSON : Good morning. NEWS ANCHOR: So why do these security breaches keep happening? HOBSON: It's like that old saying, why do you rob a bank? It's where the money is. The cyber thieves know, they're the new organized crime, that there's a lot of money to be made online because 60% of us are banking online. [A screen in the newsroom shows an image of an electronic tablet with the words "Online Banking: More than 60% of Americans bank online" displayed on the tablet screen.] Most of us are shopping online. So when they get these numbers, they can sell them. And just to use the Target example, the estimates are that the thieves made in the neighborhood of $50 million from that one breach. NEWS ANCHOR 2: So what are these company's going to do? What are potential targets going to do? HOBSON: Well now what they're saying, Target was the wake up call. They knew that they lost almost $2 billion in market cap. Their profits plummeted. The CEO lost his job. So now the retailers are saying we have to get in front of this and play offense. [A screen in the newsroom has a headline that reads "Recent Security Breaches Among Major U.S. retailers". At Target between November 27 and December 15, 2013. 40 million credit/debit cards were compromised. Personal information stolen from 70 million. At P.F. Chang's China Bistro between October 19, 2013 and June 11, 2014. 33 restaurants were affected. At Neiman Marcus between July 16 and October 30, 2013. 350,000 credit cards were compromised. At UPS between January 20 and August 11. 51 franchises were affected.] HOBSON: On top of that, the credit card companies have said that if the new card reader technology hasn't been adopted by October of 2015, if there is fraud, the retailer is responsible. So now everyone's trying to get in front of this new card reader, which has dual verification which makes the transaction much, much safer for both the retailer and the customer. NEWS ANCHOR: So let's talk about that new technology we keep hearing about it, called chip and pin technology. When's it going to be available? What does it mean for consumers when you're shopping? HOBSON: So I'm told, I talked to one of the major retailers yesterday, in the next 18 to 48 months, you're going to see most retailers adopt this. [Text on screen: ”Chip & Pin Technology” will be adopted by retailers in next 2-4 years and the estimated cost of overhaul will be $8 billion. Source: Melody Hobson.] HOBSON: Now, interestingly, Wal-Mart adopted it eight years ago. And even Home Depot has a lot of these card readers in their stores right now. But you need the new credit card. And interestingly, I just got my new AMEX that has chip and pin technology. They sent me a letter saying that it is going to be safer. So this is now rolling out right now. And you'll probably see much, much more of it coming if you haven't already. [Text on screen: ”Chip & Pin Technology: How Does It Work?". Four bullet points appear one after the other which read, "Includes name & and company logo", " contains chip with account info", "Requires PIN to confirm identity", and "Nearly impossible to counterfeit." Source: Melody Hobson.] NEWS ANCHOR 2: I assume that the credit card companies and others who are having to take these extra measures, will simply pass on the cost of that to the customers, to their customers. [Text on screen: “Costs of Data Theft For Companies". Three bullet points are listed. "Target costs: $148 million", "Breach-related claims", and "Consumer confidence hit".] HOBSON: Again, I talked to this major retailer yesterday, I don't know how they can do that. Now the costs are huge. They're estimated to be about $8 billion to change all these systems around the country. But I don't know how they could pass it on.