Sears Confirms a Fresh Malware Attack on Kmart

A malware has attacked Kmart, which has resulted in data compromising of payment card for the second time within three years. Sears Holding Corp. revealed on Wed. that it was victimized by one security incident that involves illegal credit card matters after some customers purchased at Kmart stores.

The company didn't reveal details about time taken by the attack to take place, or which particular stores are affected by this attack. But, Kmart did inform customers about the breach through email on Wed. It is not clear that letter was sent to all the customers or just to the affected customers only.

After such hack attack recently, you may be wondering why Sears Holdings and Kmart could not ready for another second go-around. Consumerist.com posted on June 1st, 2017, quoting Sears Holding as saying "As it turns out, the malicious code used to infect store payment data systems of Kmart was not detectable by present anti-virus systems and application controls."

Sears insisted that personal data of customers like names, social security numbers and addresses were not accessed in the attack. However, it confessed that some credit card numbers were compromised but did not specify the actual quantity.

Although, the company do believe that few credit card numbers were compromised. The company believes that the revelation of data of cardholders which could be used to make fake cards becomes restricted, since the company has rolled out the new EMV (known also as chip-and-PIN) point-of-sale systems in last year.

Till now, the company told that there is no such proof which can suggest that the Kmart.com or customers of Sears were crushed by this hack. Sears did not disclose about the time of occurrence of the breach, name of any criminal responsible for this cyberattack or number of affected Kmart stores. There are 735 Kmart stores all over 49 states in US. Sources at finance industry told KrebsOnSecurity which the breach did not look to be affecting all Kmart stores.

The company has started an investigation and is closely working with federal law enforcement agencies, banking partners and third party security companies to evaluate its systems. Sears Holdings has also created a customer line for any questions associated to this incident: 888-488-5978.

» SPAMfighter News - 6/7/2017