Jimmy John’s Latest Victim of Credit and Debit Card Hack
Jimmy John's, the famous sandwich giant announced Wednesday that its payment systems have been hacked into and customers' credit and debit card data has been compromised at some of its franchisees.
"...it appears that customers' credit and debit card data was compromised after an intruder stole log-in credentials from Jimmy John's point-of-sale vendor and used these stolen credentials to remotely access the point-of-sale systems at some corporate and franchised locations between June 16, 2014 and September 5, 2014," the company said ina press statement.
Jimmy John's said that 216 of its locations have been affected by the breach and 14 of them are in Chicago alone. You can see the full list of stores that have been affected by the hack here.
The Sandwich maker said that it had already hired security experts to identify the hack and had the situation under control. It now claims that customers can continue using their credit and debit cards at the Jimmy John's stores safely now.
"Jimmy John's has taken steps to prevent this type of event from occurring in the future, including installing encrypted swipe machines, implementing system enhancements, and reviewing its policies and procedures for its third party vendors," the company said in an apology statement.
Jimmy John's is the latest company to fall victim to the on-going card-related cyber crimes. Earlier this month, Home Depot confirmed a massive data breach. Target and Goodwill have also suffered at the hands of hackers that swindled financial information from their centers.
The Department of Homeland Services said that the breaches are a result of malicious software that has affected more than 1,000 businesses in the country.
Experts say it is of utmost importance that they remove the magnetic strip that helps transfer data from the cards and introduce a computer chip and PIN number method to prevent such breaches. Also, banks and credit card companies need to tighten security standards.
