A few weeks ago, Wendy announced that over 1,000 of its restaurants have been affected by a malicious malware attack. The burger chain did not speculate how many people may have been affected, though it did confirm that the hackers were able to steal its customers’ credit and debit card information.
The data breach is more than three times bigger than initially thought.
The original data breach was believed to have affected “fewer than 300” of its 5,144 franchised locations in the United States when the malware was discovered in May.
According to Wendy’s, the attackers used a remote access tool to target a point-of-sale system that, as of the previous announcement, the company didn’t think had been infected. The malware was able to obtain cardholder’s name, payment card number, expiration date, service code, cardholder verification value, among other data.
The company is blaming third-party service providers that maintain and support point-of-sale systems that many franchisees and other operators use.
Wendy’s believes that some of these third-party providers’ remote access credentials have been compromised, giving criminals access to the franchise restaurants’ POS systems they serve.
“The malware used by attackers is highly sophisticated in nature and extremely difficult to detect,” Wendy’s said, noting that it disabled the malware in all franchised restaurants where it has been discovered.
Unfortunately, it is getting more and more difficult to prevent cyber-attacks from happening to your business. To add extra security to your business and payments, check out one of our previous articles about mobile payments and their security and branding opportunities. Mobile payments are the way of the future and are more secure than you may think. It could be a good and safe alternative to your current methods.
Need to pass the time before our next article? Check out the NorthStar Restaurant POS system brought you by our friends our friends over at Custom Business Solutions.
