One of the best-known booksellers in the nation recently revealed that a complex and widespread attack on its systems could have compromised the financial data for many of its customers.
A total of 63 Barnes and Noble stores across the country were recently hit with an effort to hack their card-reading PIN pads,
the company announced. This was likely done largely in an effort to gain access to consumers’ debit and credit card numbers, as well as debit PIN codes.
"Barnes and Noble disconnected all PIN pads from its stores nationwide by close of business September 14, and customers can securely shop with credit cards through the company's cash registers," the company said. "Barnes and Noble said it is committed to providing customers with a safe shopping environment."
It also noted that despite the in-store breaches, its online and Nook customers remained unaffected, the report said. This is also true of general customer databases.
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for
IDentity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which attacks of this kind can affect consumers.
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