Kmart hacked, The third largest discount store chain in the world confirms a data breach on Firday
Retail stores hacking spree continues, with the latest casualty being the one and only Kmart.  While the news of a retail store getting hacked is nothing new now, given that least one of the retail store confirming the data breach every other week, the third largest discount store chain in the world, Kmart confirmed on Friday that Kmart store payment data collection system was breached.
On Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014 our IT team detected that our Kmart store payment data system had been breached and immediately launched a full investigation working with a leading IT security firm, Sears Holding Co said in a statement.
The U.S. retail chain said that its payment data system was infected in the early September by a new form of malware which was not detected by the Anti-Virus software installed by the company. Â As a result of the malware injection, hackers hand compromised the infected systems which in Kmart customers debit and credit card numbers being compromised.
A security firm working with the Kmart on the investigation said that no personal information, no debit card PIN numbers, no email addresses and no social security numbers were compromised in the attack, neither are the customers from the online shopping portal at (kmart.com) infected. The Kmart data breach has been contained as of now and the malware has been removed, said Alasdair James, President and Chief Member officer at Kmart.
Kmart has asked the customers to carefully review and monitor their credit and debit card account statements and in case of any suspicious activity, the customers should report the same to card issuing agency.
As is the norm nowadays, Kmart is also providing free credit monitoring protection to the members and customers of Kmart who shopped with a credit or debit card in the Kmart stores during the month of September to October, 2014.
For further inquiries or guidance the company has asked the customers to contact at Kmart’s website (kmart.com) or to contact Kmart’s customer care center at 888-488-5978.
Kmart is currently working with the federal law enforcement authorities, its banking partners and IT security firms for further investigations and it is hoped that minimal amount of customer data is breached.
Also Read:Â Dairy Queen admits that nearly 400 of its restaurants around the U.S was hacked
