Business & Tech
Michaels in Emeryville Impacted by Data Breach
If you shopped at the Emeryville store on the following dates, the company says your information was exposed.
Michaels, the latest in a string of national retailers to be hit by a data breach, has released a list of stores impacted.
The Michaels at 3991 Hollis Street in Emeryville is one of them.
[Related article: About 3M Cards Compromised in Security Breach at Michaels…]
The list also includes dates that the arts and crafts retailer says customers' information was exposed.
In Emeryville, those dates are as follows:
May, 8 2013-July 29, 2103
When the data breach was made public in late Janurary, the CEO of the Texas-based company, Chuck Rubin, issued a statement that read, in part:
"We recommend that you remain vigilant by reviewing your account statements for unauthorized charges. If you believe your payment card may have been affected, you should immediately contact your bank or card issuer."
"After weeks of analysis, we have discovered evidence confirming that systems of Michaels stores in the United States and our subsidiary, Aaron Brothers, were attacked by criminals using highly sophisticated malware that had not been encountered previously by either of the security firms," Rubin said, in a statement issued last week.
Among the findings of Michaels' investigation are:
- The affected systems contained certain payment card information, such as payment card number and expiration date, about both Michaels and Aaron Brothers customers. There is no evidence that other customer personal information, such as name, address or PIN, was at risk in connection with this issue.
- Regarding Michaels stores, the attack targeted a limited portion of the point-of-sale systems at a varying number of stores between May 8, 2013 and January 27, 2014. Only a small percentage of payment cards used in the affected stores during the times of exposure were impacted by this issue. The analysis conducted by the security firms and the Company shows that approximately 2.6 million cards may have been impacted, which represents about 7% of payment cards used at Michaels stores in the U.S. during the relevant time period. The locations and potential dates of exposure for each affected Michaels store are listed on www.michaels.com.
- Regarding Aaron Brothers, the Company has confirmed that between June 26, 2013 and February 27, 2014, 54 Aaron Brothers stores were affected by this malware. The Company estimates that approximately 400,000 cards were potentially impacted during this period. The locations for each affected Aaron Brothers store are listed on www.aaronbrothers.com.
- The Company has received a limited number of reports from the payment card brands and banks of fraudulent use of payment cards potentially connected to Michaels or Aaron Brothers.
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