Credit Card data compromised after installing malware on PoS systems

A Point-of-Sale (PoS) data breach exposed more than 2 million debit and credit cards that belongs to the diners at Earl Enterprises. Earl Enterprises is a restaurant company owning national chains such as Earl of Sandwich, Buca di Beppo, and Planet Hollywood. Although the chain restaurant operator have not disclosed themselves how many customers got affected, but Brian Krebs, the cybersecurity expert, said evidences were found by him that 2 million debit and credit cards numbers belonging to the customers of Earl Enterprises are being marketed on dark web.

The credit card information that has been hacked was getting advertised on the Joker's Stash, this was noticed first by Krebs on Security. Joker's Stash is an online forum in which big batches of credit card numbers, which were stolen, have been bought and sold.

On March 29, 2019, Earl Enterprises has officially announced about the breach. This hack has been verified by Earl Enterprises in a statement. The hacking happened in between May 23 of last year and March 18 of this year, as per the company. Although dates vary from location to location, the customers who have used payment cards in the affected locations during this time may have their information compromised.

Once Earl Enterprises learned about the potential incident, an internal investigation was promptly launched by the restaurant company and two famous cybersecurity firms were engaged said Earl Enterprises in a statement. Earl Enterprises also said that "as part of the investigation, we have been in contact with federal law enforcement officials and are cooperating with them. Based on the investigation, it appears that unauthorized individuals installed malicious software on some point-of-sale systems at a certain number of Earl Enterprises' restaurants".

The restaurants that were affected include Earl of Sandwich, Buca di Beppo, Tequila Taqueria, Planet Hollywood, Chicken Guy!, and Mixology. Nearly all the 67 locations of Buca di Beppo in United States; a few of the 31 locations of Earl of Sandwich; as well as locations of Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Orlando and New York City have been affected along with Chicken Guy! in the Disney Springs, Florida; Tequila Taqueria in the Las Vegas; and Mixology in the Los Angeles.

Other restaurants that were owned by the Earl Enterprises like Bertucci's, Café Hollywood, and Seaside on the Pier were unaffected by this hack. The hotels and resorts of Planet Hollywood were also unimpacted, as per the restaurant company.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/18/2019