On Black Friday 2013, millions of shoppers streamed into Target stores—unaware that each swipe of their card was being silently stolen. What began with a tiny HVAC contractor spiraled into one of the largest retail data breaches in history, exposing over 100 million people’s information. In this episode, Phantom Bytes traces the breach from a single phishing email to the resignation of Target’s top executives, revealing how a trusted vendor became the unwitting key to the kingdom. Along the way, we uncover the high-stakes chess game between cybercriminals and the retail industry—and the lasting changes that shaped how we shop, pay, and protect ourselves.