City Target in downtown Los Angeles/via Flickr Creative Commons

Spokeswoman Molly Snyder told Reuters that "debit card accounts have not been compromised due to the encrypted PIN numbers being taken." Target reportedly uses a "Triple DES encryption," a highly-secure encryption standard that is "used broadly throughout the U.S."

The PIN numbers, according to Target, are recorded and encrypted at the keypad point-of-sale and remained encrypted while in Target's system.  While hackers were able to access the encrypted data, they were unable to decrypt it.

Major U.S. and global banks, however, are still concerned about the data breach despite Target's assurances.  JPMorgan Chase and Santander Bank have "lowered the amount of money that customers can withdraw from ATMs and spend at stores," according to CNET and Reuters.

Data from nearly 40 million credit and debit card accounts were stolen between November 27 and December 1, the second-largest data theft in U.S. retail history.

Read more about Target's data breach at Reuters and CNET.

Reach Executive Producer Colin Hale here. Follow him on Twitter.