Home Depot isn’t out of the clear as it faces numerous lawsuits over data breach

By Williams Pelegrin Published November 26, 2014

The Home Depot sign with sky as a backdrop. — Mike Mozart/Flickr / The Home Depot

Back in September, Home Depot confirmed that it was hit by a point-of-sales hack that resulted in 56 million stolen customer payment cards and 53 million stolen email addresses. Unfortunately for the company, its woes will likely not end anytime soon, as Ars Technica reports Home Depot is facing at least 44 civil lawsuits in the United States.

According to the company’s quarterly earnings report, not only is Home Depot facing these lawsuits, but several state and federal agencies are investigating the company and its handling of customer data. “These claims and investigations may adversely affect how we operate our business, divert the attention of management from the operation of the business, and result in additional costs and fines,” according to the disclosure.

Recommended Videos

Based on one of the lawsuits, filed in September in a federal court in San Francisco, Home Depot was practically begging for a data breach to happen. According to the lawsuit, the company “failed to properly encrypt its customers’ data in violation of the [Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard].” In addition, talking to The New York Times, former Home Depot security employees revealed that the company has been warned about its poor security, but chose to ignore the warnings.

Regardless, Home Depot must deal with the fallout of its data breach, even if it seems that the company was asking for it.

Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Smart Home

Home Depot’s new Hubspace-compatible items include smart plug

A woman sitting on her couch looking at the Hubspace app on her phone.

Home Depot is expanding its Hubspace smart home lineup. If you're unfamiliar with Hubspace, it's Home Depot's smart home line that works with many of its in-house brands.

Brands such as Commercial Electric, Defiant, Ecosmart, and Hampton Bay (as well as others) can all be linked through the Hubspace app and work together. Once linked, you can even connect Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to your Hubspace devices.

Deals

Home Depot’s new Kidde Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Wi-Fi alarm is made for your smart home

Family using Kidde mobile app.

It's always exciting to see new devices introduced to the modern age, particularly with useful smart features. Like Home Depot's newest smart home device, the Kidde Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Alarm with smart features. It offers an excellent selection of useful features, integrations, and beyond -- it even works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

It is a Wi-Fi-enabled, smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that syncs up with other Kidde alarms in your home as long as they are interconnected via hardwire. It's hardwired, but unlike a standard alarm, has a 10-year backup battery. Most importantly, it delivers alerts, notifications, and information right to where you are, your mobile device, thanks to a Kidde mobile app. Why would you want a smart alarm with a mobile app? It can send alerts to you directly when something is amiss. From within your home, you can deactivate false alarms much quicker, especially if you have vaulted ceilings, without the need for a ladder or step stool. You can also set up the app to notify other important contacts like friends and family. The best part is that it's available at a fraction of the cost of its competitors, like Nest, First Alert Onelink, and so on. The Kidde smart alarm is just $90 ($89.97), compared to Nest Protect which is $119 for just the hardware.

Smart Home

Don’t toss out your old smart home tech! Regift it

Ho-ho-hold on to your old smart home tech. Don't throw it away -- it can make a great Christmas gift.

Whether you managed to find a great deal on some new smart speakers or you were gifted an upgrade on your smart light bulbs, it's very possible you'll find yourself with a few too many gadgets kicking around the house. Sure, you can stash the old ones away for a rainy day, but after gathering dust for so long, you'll likely need clear out them out eventually. Kicking these devices to the curb is an utter waste when they're still perfectly serviceable. Let's see if we can find a better home for your old smart home tech.
Prep
First things first, no matter where these gadgets are going, you'll want to make sure you've performed a factory reset on them. You don't want to have lingering user data on them when you hand them off. You'll also want to make sure you have all the appropriate power supplies and wiring needed to have the device up and running. Original packaging and documentation are nice, but not entirely necessary. So long as you've got a box with some protective padding inside, your smart home gadget should be ready to hand off.