The luggage and handbag designer Vera Bradley has notified its customers of a data breach.
It announced yesterday (October 12th) that it had launched an investigation last month into a “payment card incident” at some of its retail stores.
Fraudulent activity is likely to have taken place between July 25th and September 23rd – however , it noted, any cards used on its website have not been compromised.
“Findings from the investigation show unauthorized access to Vera Bradley's payment processing system and the installation of a program that looked for payment card data,” Vera Bradley said in an official statement.
“The program was specifically designed to find track data in the magnetic stripe of a payment card that may contain the card number, cardholder name, expiration date, and internal verification code as the data was being routed through the affected payment systems.”
The incident, which has since been resolved, has already had an impact on the company.
For example, its plans to upgrade its website have been affected, as Reuters revealed. This has now been delayed to the first quarter of 2017.
Vera Bradley urged all its customers to remain cautious and report any activity that seems to be fraudulent.
This data breach is another reminder of the threat posed by cybercriminals, and the importance of having a rapid response to out of the ordinary incidents.
