Regarding the digital/chip read cards....ALL businesses have been mandated to have this new technology ready for use by the end of 2015.
Target's getting theirs done now because of the breach.
That's not entirely accurate. End of 2015 is the date for an agreement on technology updating to go into effect that defines liability for an instance of fraud of that type by "lowest tech is liable."
Some examples:
Let's say Visa is slow rolling out their chip & pin solution. Your issuing bank is on board and sending chip & pin mastercards to their customers, and you go and shop with your swipe and sign Visa at Target, which has chip & pin card readers, and your card data gets stolen and your account liquidated. In this case, Visa is liable for damages because they had the oldest tech in the mix.
Let's say Mastercard offers your issuing bank chip & pin cards, but your local issuing bank doesn't want to pay the $5 premium per customer to upgrade, and you shop at Target with your swipe & sign and get hacked. Your issuing bank is liable for damages in this case because they had the oldest tech.
Last and probably most common example. You go shopping with your new shiny chip & pin card at Joe's Discount Falafel Hut, and Joe's a cheapskate who is still using a card reader from 1995, forcing you to do the transaction as swipe and sign. Joe's crappy old computer system gets hacked and your account liquidated. Joe is liable for covering the damages (rather than Visa or your issuing bank as in most cases presently) because he was using the old card reader.
So basically what Target is doing is attempting to generate consumer goodwill by rolling out early what would be a CYA move in 2015 for any retailer to avoid being liable for damages in the event of another breach. Theoretically if they wanted to take the risk on liability they could use the current card readers indefinitely.