It was only a matter of time. Arby’s Restaurant Group is facing several class action lawsuits that allege its recent data breach put customers’ at risk, according to a story published in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. The story quotes some of the lawsuits:
“The Arby’s Data Breach was the inevitable result of Arby’s inadequate data security measures,” said one suit, filed by First Choice Federal Credit Union, which claims to be one of more than 100 parties. “Despite the well-publicized and ever-growing threat of cyber breaches involving payment card networks and systems, Arby’s failed to ensure that it maintained adequate data security …”
According to the ajc.com story, “The plaintiffs allege Arby’s owes them for all the work it took putting out the fire for customers who feared their cards had been compromised.”
It was sources at some banks and credit unions who tipped journalists off to the breach in the first place. They reached out to Cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs who then broke the story on his site on Feb. 9. Krebs, who runs KrebsOnSecurity.com, contacted Arby’s about the possible breach after receiving emails from sources at banks and credit unions asking if he knew anything about such a breach. Arby’s responded, saying they hadn’t gone public about the incident at the request of the FBI, but told Krebs they “recently remediated a breach involving malicious software installed on payment card systems at hundreds of its restaurant locations nationwide.”
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arby’s said it isn’t commenting on the litigation, “except to say that we believe the claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend against them.”
Arby’s has corporate headquarters in Sandy Springs, part of the Atlanta Metropolitan area, which is why the suit was filed in federal court in Atlanta.
More on the breach:
- More than 355,000 credit and debit cards may have been affected.
Apparently only corporate stores, and not franchised locations, were affected.
- While Arby’s owns more than 3,330 stores in the U.S., only one-third are corporate owned.
- The company has yet to release more information about which individual restaurant locations were affected.
- It’s not clear how many restaurants were affected. “Although there are over 1,000 corporate Arby’s restaurants, not all of the corporate restaurants were affected,” said Christopher Fuller, Arby’s senior vice president of communications.
To read more about the Arby’s breach, visit this earlier blog post.
Are you covered for identity theft?
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