American retailer Home Depot has confirmed that they have suffered a data breach after conducting an investigation.

Even though the overall number of those affected is yet unknown, it is being reported that the data breach could be one of the largest ever seen.

Home Depot chairman Frank Blake has said that they owe it to their customers to inform them that a data breach has occurred.

Blake stated, “We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred. It is important to emphasise that no customers will be responsible for fraudulent charges to their accounts.”

As previously reported, Home Depot had confirmed that they were conducting an investigation after Brian Krebs reported on his website that several banks believe that Home Depot is the source of the data breach which has exposed credit and debit card information.

Krebs has also confirmed that some of the stolen details have already emerged for sale on Rescator which will allow fraudsters to counterfeit cards and possibly personal identities.

Krebs stated, “The zip code data is important because it allows the bad guys to quickly and more accurately locate the social security number and data or birth of cardholders using criminal services in the underground that sell this information.”