P.F. Chang’s breached – Customer credit card information stolen, sold, and used
If you were a customer to the China Bistro P.F. Chang’s between March and May of 2014, you may want to sit down. Customer credit card information has been found for sale on the website rescator ranging from $18 to $140 and charges on these cards have already been made. The credit card information stolen from P.F. Chang’s appears to be taken from at least six states as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Chile, and the Middle East.
The process of theft is unknown, although it appears to be a hack similar to the Target incident and exactly how widespread this incident is also unknown, but given the facts that the restaurant chain has 211 P.F. Chang’s locations and 192 Pei Wei Asian Diner restaurants, fellow blogger Brian Krebs suggests that “we’re looking at 1 million to 2 million cards stolen at least.”
P.F. Chang’s says it is investigating the breach and has released this statement:
“P.F. Chang’s takes these matters very seriously and is currently investigating the situation, working with the authorities to learn more,” Anne Deanovic, a spokeswoman for the company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said in a written statement. “We will provide an update as soon as we have additional information.”
If the breach is confirmed, which it will be (no brainer) this will be the fifth major retail chain hacked following Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels and Sally’s Beauty. In those cases, criminals installed so-called malware on retailers’ systems, which fed customers’ payment details back to their computer servers.