Dairy Queen confirmed a data breach this week and announced that customer information, including credit and debit card numbers used "at a limited number of stores," might be at risk.
The fast food and ice cream chain
based in Edina, Minnesota, told the Star Tribune that it found out about a possible hack when the website Krebs on Security reported on a pattern of fraud dating back to June.
Dairy Queen told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal that it believes the data breach is connected to the similar so-called "Backoff" point-of-sale malware hack that hit Target last year, but didn't say how it was notified and how widespread the breach could be.
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"In addition to communicating with potentially affected franchised locations, credit card processors, and credit card companies to gather relevant information, we immediately began cooperating with the authorities investigating this particular malware," Dairy Queen said in a statement.
"We continue to communicate with our franchisees and service providers regarding steps necessary to protect customer data and minimize any impact to our customers."
Dairy Queen operates about 6,300 restaurants around the country, but franchise owners are not required by headquarters to report fraud to a centralized location, company spokesman Dean Peters told the Business Journal.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told the Star Tribune that more than 1,000 U.S. retailers could be affected by the "Backoff" malware discovered last October. Backoff, which successfully hit the United Parcel Service and Supervalu, rips off customer data by burrowing into point-of-sale systems.
Target was hit with one of the of the country's largest security breaches during the busy Christmas holiday shopping season last year in a scam that affected up to 40 million customers.
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