Kmart Data Breach

Yet another large retailer has been hit by Hackers. This time a data breach involving Kmart stores.

President and Chief Member Officer of Kmart, Alasdair James, issued a statement to Kmart customers via their website on October 10, 2014 indicating that Kmart was investigating a payment systems breach of their point of sale registers at Kmart stores.

Upon learning of the breach, it is reported that Kmart immediately launched a full investigation to obtain the full scope of the compromise. Investigators, according to the Sears Holding Co. spokesperson, said their systems were infected with a form of malware “that was currently undetectable by anti-malware systems."

Kmart said the investigation revealed that hackers obtained no personal information including PIN numbers and email address’s. Kmart is offering free credit monitoring protection for anyone who believes they might have been affected and who shopped at Kmart between Sept 1 and Oct 9.

In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Sears Holding Co. shared that Kmart stores were compromised in early September 2014 by malicious software that they believe may have compromised the Track 2 data of customers’ credit and debit card information

At this point in time, Sears Holding Co. does not feel their Sears, Roebuck customers were impacted, and that the breach was limited to the payment systems at Kmart stores.

What can you do? If you have used credit or debit cards at any of the affected stores or websites review your statements regularly to ensure nothing fishy is happening and if you see something unexpected, contact the financial institutions fraud department.

We will continue to update you as we have more information.