{
  "id": 2402197,
  "title": "Target may have suffered another damaging data leak as hackers claim 8.6GB haul",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/21/target-may-have-suffered-another-damaging-data-leak-as-hackers-claim",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-21T16:05:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechRadar",
    "slug": "techradar",
    "url": "https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/target-may-have-suffered-another-damaging-data-leak-as-hackers-claim-8-6gb-haul"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hackers are claiming to have stolen 8.6GB of source code from Target, marking what appears to be the company's second data breach in 2026. The alleged breach has prompted threats to release the stolen data unless Target agrees to pay a ransom. However, the authenticity of this claim is far from certain. In January, a different hacker group had released 860GB of data, which Target later confirmed was genuine. This new attack, however, is being blamed on a hacker known as Xpl0itrs, whose previous claims appear to be unsubstantiated. Xpl0itrs has shown no proof of the stolen data and has previously teased leaks that never materialized. Furthermore, some of the data Xpl0itrs claims to have obtained was already publicly available, adding further doubt to the legitimacy of this latest leak.",
  "summary": "The claims came from a threat actor with a questionable track record.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}