The Home Depot has 53 million emails breached in massive hack

The Home Depot is the latest retailer to be targeted by hackers after a total of 53 million email addresses were stolen, along with 56 million credit cards which the company had previously revealed.

Passwords and payment card information was not accessed in the email hack, said Home Depot, but addresses can be used effectively in scams or to trick people into revealing more sensitive information, according to The Home Depot. 

"The company is notifying affected customers in the U.S. and Canada. Customers should be on guard against phishing scams, which are designed to trick customers into providing personal information in response to phony emails," The Home Depot wrote.

Home Depot previously revealed that it first became aware that it was being hacked in early September, and that the hackers used "unique, custom-built malware to evade detection," and that it was malware that "had not been seen previously in other attacks." 

According to the report, the hackers used a third-party vendor's user name and password to get into the system and then obtained "elevated rights" to more sensitive data in the biggest-ever retail breach. The strategy was similar to the one used at Target, where hackers gained access last year via a refrigeration contractor's electronic billing account.

The company has estimated the attack will cost some $62 million.

The Home Depot is in the process of notifying affected customers and is offering free one-year credit monitoring.