Landry's restaurant chain data breached by credit card scammers

The Landry's restaurant chain, which has 500-plus locations, has suffered a credit card breach, and is advising customers to check their bank statements. The alarm was first sounded by KrebsOnSecurity who was in turn  warned by a number of sources in the banking industry that the attack may have been going on since May. 

Fraud analysts in the banking industry tell KrebsOnSecurity that the latest hospitality firm to suffer a credit card breach is likely Landry’s Inc., a company that manages a nationwide stable of well-known restaurants — including Bubba Gump, Claim Jumper, McCormick & Schmick’s, and Morton’s.

Update, 2:57 p.m. ET: Landry’s has acknowledged an investigation. Their press release is available here (PDF).

Original story:

Houston-based Landry’s Inc. owns and operates more than 500 properties, such as Landry’s Seafood, Chart House and Rainforest Cafe. Last week, I began hearing from banking industry sources who said fraud patterns on cards they’d issued to customers strongly suggested a breach at the restaurateur. Industry sources told this author that the problem appears to have started in May 2015 and may still be impacting some Landry’s locations.

It remains unclear how many of Landry’s 500 properties may be affected. The company says it is investigating reports of unauthorized charges on certain payment cards after the cards were used legitimately at some of its restaurants. An online FAQ about the incident posted to Landry’s site says the company does not yet know the extent of the breach.

Restaurants are a prime target for credit card thieves, mainly because they traditionally have not placed a huge emphasis on securing their payment systems. The attackers typically exploit security vulnerabilities or weaknesses in point-of-sale devices to install malicious software that steals credit and debit card data.

Thieves can encode the stolen data onto new plastic and use the counterfeit cards at big box retailers like Best Buy and Target. Indeed, multiple sources in the banking industry say they are now seeing fraudulent purchases at big box stores on cards that all were used at apparently compromised Landry’s locations.