Neiman Marcus says 1.1 million debit and credit cards
used at its stores may have been compromised in a security breach last
year.
The high-end retailer said Visa, MasterCard and Discover
have found 2,400 Neiman Marcus and Last Call customer cards that were
used fraudulently. Last Call is Neiman Marcus’ clearance chain. Neiman
Marcus says it is notifying all customers who shopped in its stores in
2013 and offering them a free year of credit monitoring and
identity-theft protection.
Malicious software installed in Neiman
Marcus’ system attempted to take customer card information from July 16
to Oct. 30, the company said. The malicious software has been disabled.
Neiman
Marcus Group Ltd. reiterated in a post on its website Wednesday night
that social security numbers and birth dates were not stolen and
customers who shopped online were not affected. Customers that use its
private Neiman Marcus credit cards were also not affected. The
Dallas-based company said the investigation is ongoing.
The
company learned that malicious software was installed to its system on
Jan. 1, after a forensics company discovered it. It informed federal law
enforcement agencies and began working with the U.S. Secret Service and
payment processors.
Target Corp. also suffered a security breach,
during the holiday shopping season. Hackers stole about 40 million
debit and credit card numbers. Personal information, including names,
email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses of as many as 70
million customers was also stolen.
Neiman Marcus said it has no knowledge of a connection between the two security breaches.
A
report published earlier this month by iSight Partners, a global cyber
intelligence firm that works with the U.S. Secret Service and the
Department of Homeland Security, said the security breach that hit
Target appears to have been part of a broader and highly sophisticated
scam that potentially affected a large number of retailers.
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