Continuing with the trail of cyber attacks, this time, the hackers attacked a restaurant in North Carolina. Reportedly, the PDQ data breach exposed sensitive credit card information to the hackers. The attackers also managed to sustain their access for about 11 months.
PDQ (People Dedicated to Quality – as they call it), is a chain of restaurants with branches across North Carolina. Their locations include Raleigh, Durham, Wake Forest, Cary, and Fayetteville.
PDQ Data Breach Exposed Customer’s Card Details
Three days ago, PDQ officials uploaded an upsetting notice on their website. It explains the details about the PDQ data breach that lasted for about 11 months. The officials suspect that the hackers may have accessed the credit card details and personal information of some customers.
“An unauthorized person (hacker) exploited part of our computer related system and accessed and or acquired personal information from some of our customers. We believe the attacker gained entry through an outside technology vendor’s remote connection tool. Based on an investigation, the unauthorized access and or acquisition occurred from May 19, 2017 – April 20, 2018 (breach time period).”
Explaining further about the data breach, they say that the hackers may have accessed part or all of the personal financial details. These may include cardholder names, card numbers, verification value, and expiration dates of cards.
Presently, they could not state an exact figure about the number of records breached. The massive attack affected almost all of their locations except a few.
“All PDQ locations in operation during some or all of the breach time period, May 19, 2017 – April 20, 2018, were affected. However, the following locations were not affected: Tampa International Airport location at 4100 George J Bean Pkwy, Tampa, FL 33607, Amalie Arena location at 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa, FL 33602, and PNC Arena location at 1400 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27607.”
What Next?
PDQ says that they started investigations after noticing the breach. They have involved a cybersecurity firm for forensic review. Moreover, they have also reported the matter to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
PDQ further advises their customers to monitor their account statuses vigilantly. Besides that, they should take all possible measures to protect their information.