A dozen Wendy's in Eastern NC among those hacked
Wendy's said hackers were able to steal customer's credit and debit card information at 1,025 of its U.S. restaurants, far more than it originally thought.
The hamburger chain said Thursday hackers were able to obtain card numbers, names, expiration dates and codes on the card, beginning in late fall. Some customer's cards were used to make fraudulent purchases at other stores. Wendy's Co. urged customers to check their accounts for any fraudulent purchases.
That total included 14 restaurants in North Carolina, most of them in the Eastern part of the state.
Fayetteville was the hardest hit area, with seven locations affected by the hack. Wendy's locations in Clinton, Hope Mills, Lumberton, Siler City and Warsaw were also affected.
Two Wendy's restaurants in the western part of the state, locations in Cherokee and Murphy, were also affected.
The Dublin, Ohio, company first announced it was investigating a possible hack in January. In May, it said malware was found in fewer than 300 restaurants. About a month later, it said two types of malware were found and the number of restaurants affected was "considerably higher."
In a statement, Wendy's explained the process by which the scam was revealed.
Wendy's first reported unusual payment card activity affecting some restaurants in February 2016. In May, we confirmed that we had found evidence of malware being installed on some restaurants' point-of-sale systems, and had worked with our investigator to disable it. On June 9th, we reported that we had discovered additional malicious cyber activity involving other restaurants. That malware has also been disabled in all franchisee restaurants where it has been discovered. We believe that both criminal cyberattacks resulted from service providers' remote access credentials being compromised, allowing access - and the ability to deploy malware - to some franchisees' point-of-sale systems.
There are more than 5,700 Wendy's restaurants in the U.S.
To see a list of all affected restaurants, click here.
Wendy's also has a toll-free number for consumers wanting more information or who have questions. You can call (866) 779-0485, between 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
