Brooks Brothers Reveals Payment Card Data Breach That Lasted Nearly a Year

If you purchased something from Brooks Brothers in the last year, you might have gotten more than a bagful of new dress shirts. The  U.S. clothing company recently acknowledged that payment card information was compromised at some retail locations in both the United States and Puerto Rico, including some of its Outlet stores. The “security incident” took place for nearly a year, between April 4, 2016 and March 1, 2017.

Brooks Brothers said the malicious software could have affected payment card data – including names, payment card account numbers, card expiration dates and card verification codes.

“Based upon an extensive forensic investigation, it appears that an unauthorized individual was able to gain access to and install malicious software designed to capture payment card information on some of our payment processing systems at our retail and outlet locations,” according to the statement posted online.

The incident did not affect Social Security numbers, customer addresses, or any other sensitive personal information, according to Brooks Brothers.

The company confirmed that the issue was resolved and is no longer impacting transactions. The incident did not affect any purchases made on the BrooksBrothers.com website nor does it affect any transactions at Brooks Brothers airport locations, according to the statement posted.

There’s a look-up tool on the site so you can see if a location you shopped at was affected by the breach.

While Brooks Brothers has not disclosed how many customers were affected in the breach, according to this ZDnet.com story, 223 retail locations were affected. The company is said to operate more than 400 locations worldwide.


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