Fast-food chain Wendy's recently found additional cases of unusual credit card activity at some of its restaurants, which signals that the extent of the damage done by hackers in a previously discovered attack is much worse than initially thought.
Payment companies first noticed the unusual credit card activity on transactions processed in some Wendy's stores. While the cards were legitimately used in transactions made at Wendy's, the cards were then charged with fraudulent transactions afterward.
The activity prompted the company to launch an investigation into the matter with law enforcement authorities and cybersecurity experts.
Last month, Wendy's said that it had discovered malware in the point-of-sale systems of less than 300 franchised restaurants in North America. In addition, about 50 more locations were suspected to have experienced issues in cybersecurity.
However, developments in the ongoing investigation show that the number of restaurants affected by the attacks could be significantly higher.
In addition to the malware discovered in May, Wendy's said that another variant of the malware has been found. The newly discovered malware is similar in nature to the first one but is executed differently.
The hackers utilized a remote access tool to attack a kind of POS system, which Wendy's previously believed was not affected by the attacks. With the malware being discovered in such POS systems, the number of restaurants compromised by the hackers will balloon to much higher than 300 locations.
According to Wendy's, the attacks may have been caused by the compromised credentials of a third-party service provider that supports and maintains the POS systems of the fast-food chain. Through the credentials, hackers were able to tap into the POS systems of the affected Wendy's locations to inject the malware.
The company said that it has disabled the newly discovered malware in all the locations where it was discovered, with Wendy's continuing its cooperation with the authorities and experts in finding out the hackers behind the crime.
Wendy's is just one among the many companies that are currently experiencing cybersecurity issues. In fact, even the United States Federal Reserve is not safe from hackers, with its computers system being breached more than 50 times between 2011 and 2015. The report is concerning because the Federal Reserve plays a critical role in the banking industry not just in the country but also worldwide.
Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was also recently the target of a hacking attack, with his accounts on Pinterest and Twitter being compromised.
