Brooks Brothers Alerts Customers of Year-Long Payment Card Breach

Brooks Brothers announced on Friday that it recently learned of a potential credit card breach, affecting customers who shopped in-store over the past year. In a press release, the men’s clothing retailer – which operates more than 400 stores worldwide – said potentially compromised information included cardholder names, account numbers, card expiration dates and verification codes. The company noted sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or other personally identifying information, was not affected in the incident.

“Based upon an extensive forensic investigation, it appears that an unauthorized individual was able to gain access to and install malicious software designed to capture payment card information on some of our payment processing systems at our retail and outlet locations,” said the company.

The retailer warned the incident affects some customers who made purchases between April 4, 2016, and March 1, 2017, at certain U.S. and Puerto Rico locations. A list on the company’s website shows more than 220 retail locations impacted by the breach, including stores in California, New York, Florida and Texas. “We take the security of our customers’ information very seriously and, once we learned of this incident, we took immediate action including initiating an internal review, engaging independent forensic experts to assist us in the investigation and remediation of our systems and alerting law enforcement,” read the statement. The company added that while the investigation is ongoing, it plans to enhance its security measures moving forward to help prevent a future incident. “We can confirm that this issue has been resolved and is no longer impacting transactions,” the retailer assured. Customers are advised to review credit and debit card account statements to determine any discrepancies or unusual activity, and report any instances to their payment card issuer.