Home Depot said Thursday that the security breach it reported this month allowed cyberthieves to cull information from 56 million credit and debit cards, far worse in terms of data loss than a similar attack late last year on the Target store chain. The malicious software, or malware, was placed on Home Depot point-of-sale terminals, or cash registers, from April to September, the company said in a news release. The malware was found in Home Depot stores in the USA and Canada. The number of cards involved in Home Depot’s loss dwarfs the 40 million Target says were compromised over a three-week period. The Home Depot and Target cases show that big-box retailers are particularly vulnerable to cyberthieves. Thieves “are able to invest time in researching their targets to find a way into the network,” says Trey Ford, a global security strategist at the security firm Rapid7, in a statement.