A data breach at Target may have affected as many as 121,000 Hawaii shoppers, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs said Friday.

The retailer notified the public earlier this month that roughly 40 million credit and debit accounts were compromised by hackers in a data breach at its stores across the country between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

Banks and credit unions in the islands have been on alert since and Target has agreed to free credit report monitoring for one year for all affected cardholders.

Target officials also confirmed Friday that hackers were able to access some of the personal identification numbers (PIN) from ATM cards used in its stores. 

"We are working with Target to ensure that consumers are not held liable for fraudulent purchases," Bruce Kim, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection, said in a press release. "Hawaii consumers who shopped at Target should take precautions to prevent their accounts from being used by monitoring their bank and credit card statements and reporting suspicious activities to their bank or card company. Keep your guard up for the next year because it may take time for any fraudulent transactions to appear."