A recent Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach is believed to have affected more than half a million of the restaurant chain’s customers and resulted in their credit/debit card details being obtained by hackers.
Darden Restaurants acquired Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in March 2017. The newly acquired restaurant chain was using a legacy point-of-sale (POS) system which was disabled and replaced by April 10, 2018 as part of Darden’s integration process.
However, prior to the system being replaced, hackers gained access to the POS system and customers’ credit/debit card details. There are 163 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen restaurants spread across 23 states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. All locations were affected by the breach.
The Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach affects all customers who visited those restaurants between November 3, 2017 and January 2, 2018 and paid for their meal using a debit or credit card. Determining how many of its customers have been affected is likely to take some time, although current estimates suggest that as many as 567,000 customers could be affected.
Restaurants are an attractive target for cybercriminals. If access can be gained to the network containing the POS system, malware can be installed to intercept and record credit card numbers as diners pay for their meals.
Once installed, malware can silently steal credit card numbers for months. Typically, it is only when banks and credit card companies detect a pattern of credit card fraud and link it to a particular establishment that an investigation is launched and malware is detected.
While the value of credit card numbers on the black market has dropped due to the constant availability of stolen credentials, full sets of credit card information can still fetch at least $7. At that price, the Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach could have netted the attackers $4 million. With such a massive potential payday it is no surprise that restaurants are such a big target for hackers.
The Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach is one of many attacks on restaurant chains in recent months. In March 2018, RMH Franchise Holdings announced that malware had been discovered on the POS system used in 160 Applebee’s restaurants. The malware had been programmed to record names, credit and debit card numbers, expiry dates, and CVV codes and was present on the system for a month between December 2017 and January 2018.
In May, a cyberattack was detected at Zippy’s Restaurants which affected 25 of the Hawaii restaurant chain’s locations. Malware had been installed on its POS system for 4 months before it was detected. Also in May, Chili’s restaurants announced that malware had been discovered on the POS system used in some of its restaurants. The malware was active between March and April 2018.
In June, the PDQ restaurant chain discovered it had been attacked and customers’ credit and debit card information had been stolen. The attackers had access to the POS system for almost a year between May 2017 and April 2018. In that attack, access was gained through a remote connection tool used by a technology vendor.
Last year also saw numerous cyberattacks on restaurant chains. Shoney’s, Arby’s, Chipotle, and Sonic Drive-In all experienced major cyberattacks, with the latter estimated to have impacted millions of customers.
If you own a restaurant it is essential to implement a range of cybersecurity solutions to keep hackers out of your network and ensure your customers credit and debit card numbers remain secure.
You can find out more about cybersecurity best practices for restaurants here or contact the TitanHQ team to discover how two of the most common entry points into a network – email and WiFi – can be secured.