Sprouts Farmers Market, a privately owned chain of specialty grocery stores, is reporting that some of their customers who shopped their Southern California or Arizona stores during the month of January may have had their debit or credit card information stolen.
On Friday the grocery chain said that 19 of its stores’ credit card terminals were breached by illegal software at the end of January. The systems at six stores in Southern California and thirteen in Arizona were hit by the illegal software.
As soon as Sprouts discovered the breach, they proceeded to replace all the affected credit card terminals. The company informed federal officials of the situation and is working with a data security firm to secure their point of sale operations at all of their over 150 locations.
Shoppers who visited the store in the latter part of January have been advised to check their bank statements for any suspicious activity.
IT Security Specialist Francis Brown, a partner at the Phoenix firm Stach and Liu, said sensitive information is always at risk with the prevalence of malware and hackers searching for their next victim.
“I would say nothing is airtight, and the more functionality you add into any system, the more opportunity to compromise it,” said Brown. “You have to assume your information is out there.”
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