More eateries may have been jeopardized in security breach

By: The VNN Team  //  US News

by Carol Thompson

Following the announcement of a security breach at some of the Jimmy John’s stores across the nation it’s been learned that as many as 100 more eateries may have had customer credit card information compromised.

Signature Systems, the point-of-sale vendor now says the breach may have jeopardized nearly 100 independent restaurants across the country.

The news comes on the heels of the announcement of a data breach at approximately 216 Jimmy John’s sandwich shops across the nation. Jimmy John’s also used Signature Systems as its point-of-sales vendor.

“We have determined that an unauthorized person gained access to a user name and password that Signature Systems used to remotely access POS systems,” the company wrote in a recently released statement. “The unauthorized person used that access to install malware designed to capture payment card data from cards that were swiped through terminals in certain restaurants. The malware was capable of capturing the cardholder’s name, card number, expiration date, and verification code from the magnetic stripe of the card.”

Many of the 100 restaurants were primarily small businesses and pizza shops. Signature Systems has released a list of those restaurants that may be impacted by the breach. The restaurants are located in eastern, southern and Midwestern states.

Jimmy John’s confirmed their data breach Sept. 24. Company officials said they learned of the possible breach July 30 that impacted both debit and credit cards that were swiped at their stores. The security breach does not include cards that were used online or manually entered at the stores.  The breach occurred between June 16 and Sept. 5.

In both the Jimmy john’s breach and the independent restaurants the hackers were able to capture the cardholders name, card number, expiration date and verification code from the magnetic strip of the card, according to Signature Systems. The company cannot identify which cards were taken and cannot identify the customers.

Signature Systems stated that they believe they have blocked the attack and consumers can feel confident in using their cards at the affected eateries.

 

Image Flickr Jon Miller