T.J. Maxx data theft worse than first reported
Data stolen covers transactions dating as far back as December 2002

Information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen by hackers who accessed TJX's customer information in a security breach that the discount retailer disclosed more than two months ago. TJX Cos., the owner of about 2,500 stores, said in a regulatory filing late Wednesday that about three-quarters of those cards had either expired at the time of the theft, or data from their magnetic strips had been masked — stored as asterisks rather than numbers.

But TJX acknowledged it still knows little about the full scope of the breach, in part because the hacker or hackers accessed TJX's encryption software and could have known how to unscramble the information.

Information from 45.7 million cards was stolen from transactions beginning in January 2003 and ending Nov. 23 of that year, TJX said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. TJX did not give estimates of the number of cards from which information was stolen for transactions occurring from Nov. 24, 2003 to June 28, 2004.....