It was. But in order to pull it off on the scale they did, the bad guys must have broken into Target's corporate network. Apparently, the level of access they

It was. But in order to pull it off on the scale they did, the bad guys must have broken into Target's corporate network. Apparently, the level of access they achieved allowed them to raid the marketing database as well as to hack large numbers of POS terminals to leak the card swipe data. The marketing database, BTW, contained name and contact information, but not credit card details. The bad guys might find it useful for phishing attacks.