Retailer Sally Beauty has confirmed that they are currently in the process of investigating the extent of a data breach where customer credit card numbers and their CVV numbers (three- digit security number)
Sally Beauty confirmed on March 5th that they had detected an attempt to infiltrate their network and that they were investigating the potential breach with a top-tier security firm.
The statement read, “Recently, our systems detected an attempted intrusion into our Sally Beauty Supply LLC network, and we believe we promptly mitigated potential issues arising from this intrusion. As a result of our ongoing investigation, which included assistance from a top-tier security firm, we have no reason to believe there has been any loss of credit card or consumer data. We will continue to investigate and actively monitor this situation.”
Despite earlier optimism, it has now been confirmed that confidential data belonging to no more than 25,000 people have been compromised but that it is still very hard to ascertain the scope of the data breach until the investigation has been completed.
An updated statement read, “As a result of this ongoing investigation, we have now discovered evidence that fewer than 25,000 records containing card-present (track 2) payment card data have been illegally accessed on our systems and we believe it may have been removed. As experience has shown in prior data security incidents at other companies, it is difficult to ascertain with certainty the scope of a data security breach/incident prior to the completion of a comprehensive forensic investigation. As a result, we will not speculate as to the scope or nature of the data security incident.”
“We take this criminal activity very seriously. We continue to work diligently with Verizon on this investigation and are taking necessary actions and precautions to mitigate and remediate the issues caused by this security incident. In addition, we are working with the United States Secret Service on their preliminary investigation into the matter.”
Sally Beauty has become the latest retail company to confirm that they have suffered a data breach. It looks as though hackers are targeting retailers for credit card information due to the potential financial gains that can be obtained on a large scale. What is worrying is how frequently hackers are compromising credit card details and on the scale that they are doing so.
It is critical that all companies ensure that they have the best security plan in place and regularly test it to help protect themselves against the threat of cyber hackers and cyber thieves. This should be supported with a robust backup solution to ensure that data can always be recovered no matter what action a hacker or cyber thieves takes such as modifying or deleting the data.
