Customers of Wendy’s Fast Food Restaurants Victimized by Hackers, Credit Card Breach

Wendy’s, the popular fast food restaurant chain, recently announced that several of its locations were compromised by a data breach. According to reports, computer hackers were able to get unauthorized access to credit card information through the Wendy’s computer system. The hackers reportedly gained access to customers’ credit card information, including cardholder names, credit card numbers, debit card numbers, and expiration dates.

Wendy’s released a statement indicating that only franchise locations were affected by the data breach; corporate-owned stores were not impacted as a result of the hack. At first, Wendy’s officials believed that just 300 stores had been compromised by the cyber hackers. However, sometime later, the company announced that more than 1,000 stores in states throughout the U.S., in addition to Washington D.C. and US territories, had been affected by the data breach. In total, credit card information for customers at more than 15 percent of all Wendy’s restaurants in the United States was compromised in the cyber attack.

It is believed that the hackers may have gained access to credit card information from customers who purchased food at Wendy’s as far back as October 2015.

It took the Wendy’s corporation a while to figure out the specifics of the data breach. After determining what likely happened, Wendy’s revealed to the public exactly which fast food store locations had been compromised in the data breach.

Todd Penegor, the president and CEO of Wendy’s, spoke on behalf of the company and apologized to any customers who may have been inconvenienced by the data breach. Penegor emphasized the “highly sophisticated” nature of the “criminal cyber attacks” against the Wendy’s franchise restaurants.

The Wendy’s CEO also reiterated that the company is “committed” to protecting its customers going forward. To that end, Wendy’s will continue to investigate the recent data breach and take measures to improve the company’s data security in the future. Beyond that, Wendy’s is expected to provide those customers affected by the credit card hack with credit monitoring services for up to one year.

At this time, it is unclear exactly how many customers were victims of identity theft as a result of the Wendy’s data hack.

For more information, read the News Herald article, “Several Local Wendy’s Restaurants Part of Credit Card Hack.”

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