In the category of “here we go again”, another major chain, this time Wendy’s, has reported that cardholder data has been compromised through some of their restaurant locations. As reported through many outlets including Ubergizmo:
According to Bob Bertini, a spokesperson for Wendy’s, “We have received this month from our payment industry contacts reports of unusual activity involving payment cards at some of our restaurant locations. Reports indicate that fraudulent charges may have occurred elsewhere after the cards were legitimately used at some of our restaurants.”
Since migration to EMV is really just getting started, we will continue to see reports of these breaches. This particular incident was made public fairly close to when the issue was first uncovered, so the breadth of the incident, the full extent of the data that was stolen, is still not known:
Bertini notes,
“We began investigating immediately, and the period of time we’re looking at the incidents is late last year. We know it’s [affecting] some restaurants but it’s not appropriate just yet to speculate on anything in terms of scope.” Wendy’s isn’t the first company to experience such breaches. In the past we have seen hotel chains and retailers experience similar breaches.
It will be interesting to see if the incursion had any impact on CurrenC transactions. Wendy’s is a part of the MCX group of merchants piloting the merchant led mobile payment app.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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