Checkers recently was hit with malware in their point of sale or PoS system. This is a very common area for hackers to focus on in order to get credit card information. Staples, Target, Home Depot and Whole Foods are just a few other organizations who have experienced similar issues in the past.

The company brought in law enforcement and others to determine what happened.

Based on the investigation, they determined that malware was installed on certain point-of-sale systems at some Checkers and Rally’s locations, which appears to have enabled an unauthorized party to obtain the payment card data of some guests.

Not all Checkers and Rally’s restaurants were affected by this issue. A list of the impacted locations and their respective estimated dates of exposure is available here. In addition, not all guests who visited the listed restaurants during the relevant time periods are affected by this issue.

The malware was designed to collect information stored on the magnetic stripe of payment cards, including cardholder name, payment card number, card verification code and expiration date. Based on the investigation, Checkers has no evidence that other cardholder personal information was affected by this issue.

Potentially impacted customers are encouraged to report any instances of identity theft to their local police and to the FTC.

We refer all business owners and management to read cybersecurity essentials for every organization in order to be aware of the cybersecurity basics they should be implmenting in their organizations.