ALERT! Kmart & Dairy Queen Hacked ALERT!

Published On October 13, 2014 | By Tom Huskerson | Alerts, Breach Briefs, News and Analysis

Alasdair James, President and Chief Member Officer of Kmart, announced on Thursday that the company’s payment systems were hacked. Kmart’s IT team detected the breach of store payment systems. A preliminary investigation revealed a deliberate infection of the store’s system with a new form of malware  that compromised credit and debit cards numbers. Kmart says it does not believe personal information such as PIN numbers, email addresses or social security numbers were affected. The company’s website, Kmart.com, so far has not been affected by the breach.

A spokesman for Kmart said in a statement  “Our investigation to date indicates the breach started in early September. According to the security experts we’ve been working with our Kmart store payment data systems were infected with a form of malware that was undetectable by current anti-virus systems. We were able to quickly remove the malware. However we believe debit and credit card numbers have been compromised.”

According to Kmart the data breach was contained. Customers whose credit card information may have been stolen will not be held  liable for unauthorized charges.  A company spokesperson told SecurityWeek that they are not able to provide a figure on the number of customers impacted. Kmart is also offering free credit monitoring protection to any customer who made a purchase using a debit or credit card in any of its stores in September or October up to Thursday’s announcement. Kmart is currently working with federal law enforcement authorities, banking partners and security experts to solve the hack. The company did not reveal what security experts it was working with.

In another breach Dairy Queen reported that nearly 400 of its restaurants across the country have been hacked. The company blamed the ‘Backoff’ malware for the breach. According to Dairy Queen the malware entered the the company’s systems through a “third-party vendor’s compromised account credentials.” Dairy Queen said it has contained the malware. The hacked system contained customers names, payment card numbers and expiration dates, according to the company. Dairy Queen said the intrusion took place between August and October, but varies at each location.

Dairy Queen posted an online list of 395 restaurants including Orange Julius outlets where payment card data was compromised. Click here for the full list. Dairy Queen owns more than 4,000 stores.

For more information please see;

Kmart Registers Were Hacked, Credit and Debit Cards Numbers at Risk 

Kmart Hacked; Customers’ Card Numbers Exposed 

Malware Hack Dips Into Dairy Queen Customer Data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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