Company that owns more than 600 restaurants announces potential credit card data breach

Customers urged to monitor financial statements

ORLANDO, Fla. – A company that owns more than 600 restaurants across the country announced the discovery of malware that could have accessed customers’ credit card data.

Officials from Landry’s, Inc. said the malware was recently detected and could have been in place between March 13, 2019 and Oct. 17, 2019 and in some cases, as early as Jan. 18, 2019. However, a statement said that the potentially affected credit cards were only those mistakenly swiped on the order-entry systems rather than the point-of-sale terminals used for payment processing, which is where they should have been swiped.

The order-entry systems are used to input food orders and swipe rewards cards.

The malware was also found on the point-of-sale terminals but end-to-end encryption technology made the credit card data unreadable.

“The malware searched for track data (which sometimes has the cardholder name in addition to card number, expiration date, and internal verification code) read from a payment card after it was swiped on the order-entry systems,” the statement read. “In some instances, the malware only identified the part of the magnetic stripe that contained payment card information without the cardholder name.”

The malware has since been removed and enhanced security measures have been added, which includes additional training for employees.

Customers are advised to monitor their financial statements and report any unauthorized transactions.

Landry’s owns more than 60 restaurant chains, including Joe’s Crab Shack, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Mitchell’s Fish Market, Rainforest Cafe and more. You can click here to see the full list of properties.

Anyone with questions can call 833-991-1538 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday.

To read the company’s full statement, which includes fraud protection tips, click here.


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