[Dataloss] Stop & Shop has credit card data stolen

[B.K. DeLong]

Great. I wonder where else these bugs are in place...

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/02/19/
stop__shop_reports_credit_data_was_stolen/



By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | February 19, 2007



SEEKONK -- With help from US Secret Service agents, Stop & Shop
Supermarket Cos. executives scrambled yesterday to determine how many
consumers may have had their credit and debit card data stolen by
high-tech thieves who apparently broke into checkout-line card
readers and planted the equivalent of bugs to steal information.



Stop & Shop said customer information, including personal
identification codes for cards, was confirmed stolen from
supermarkets inCoventry and Cranston, R.I. The company said it had
found evidence that card readers were tampered with in a similar way
at four other stores in Seekonk and in Bristol, Providence, and
Warwick, R.I. But the supermarket company said it had no reports of
illegal transactions on cards that had been used at those stores.



After being notified by a bank last week that its Coventry and
Cranston stores appeared to be the common link to a number of stolen
card numbers, Quincy-based Stop & Shop has bolted down card readers
at all 385 of its supermarkets in New England, New York, and New
Jersey, company spokesman Robert Keane said yesterday.



"They would not now be able to tamper with the units the way they did
before," Keane said. He declined to reveal details of how the scam
worked, other than to say it involved card readers being removed,
tampered with, and reinstalled. "Our investigation has not uncovered
any involvement or suspected involvement of any Stop & Shop personnel
in the tampering," Keane said.



.  . . . . . .



Inside the Seekonk Stop & Shop, store employees pointed out newly
installed bolts on the mounts for the pin pads, intended to thwart
anyone from sliding the card readers off the mount to get at the
underside of the device or the wires that connect it to the cash
register.



But at least one shopper was blasé. Al Mendes of Seekonk, who had
just finished shopping yesterday afternoon and charged his purchases
on his credit card, said he would not worry if his number got stolen.



"The credit card company eats it," Mendes said. "Not me."


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