(WSVN) - Hundreds of thousands of Arby’s customers may have had their credit card information stolen after malware was apparently installed on the company’s cash registers.
Arby’s learned about the security breach in mid-January, Fox News reports, but the FBI requested that the company not go public about the incident at the time as they investigated.
The fast food chain has over 3,300 restaurants in the U.S., though the breach only affected about 1,000 corporate-owned locations. No franchise locations were affected, according to Krebs on Security.
According to Krebs, the Arby’s Restaurant Group (ARG) breach most likely occurred between Oct. 25, 2016 and Jan. 19, and could involve as many as 350,000 credit and debit cards.
“Upon learning of the incident, ARG immediately notified law enforcement and enlisted the expertise of leading security experts, including Mandiant,” an Arby’s spokesman said in a statement.
Once hackers break into register systems, they can retrieve information from every card swiped at that cash register. A similar breach affected Wendy’s locations in January of 2016, compromising hundreds of thousands of cards.
According to Fortune Magazine, Arby’s said that its customers should check their credit card statements for any unauthorized payments. If they discover suspicious activity, “they should report them immediately to the bank that issued their card,” the Arby’s spokesperson said in an email.
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