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Hackers hit Shaw's, Star Market chains [Boston Herald :: ](Boston Herald (MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 16--If you used your debit or credit card at Star Market or Shaw's between June 22 and July 17, double-check your statements -- you may be a victim of the latest high-profile security breach. The chains' owner, AB Acquisition LLC, yesterday said it recently learned of an "unlawful intrusion to obtain credit and debit card payment information in some of its stores." "As soon as we were notified of the incident, we began working closely with (IT services provider) Supervalu to determine what happened," Mark Bates, senior vice president and chief information officer at AB Acquisition, said in a statement. "It's important to note that there is no evidence at this point that consumer data has been misused." Nevertheless, the company is offering customers whose cards may have been affected a free year of identity protection. Supervalu disclosed the breach in its grocery and liquor stores yesterday and said the chain stores -- including Star Market and Shaw's -- it sold last year to Cerberus Capital Management LP also were affected because it still provides them with IT services. "Each one of these breaches -- Target, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang's, now Supervalu -- is a wake-up call to businesses that hackers will keep finding more sophisticated ways to get at treasure troves of credit and debit card data, and that they need to be laser-focused on cybersecurity, not only to prevent breaches, but because the SEC, the FTC, and state attorneys general ... are increasingly conducting investigations of businesses that experience attacks, and because plaintiff's lawyers are increasingly suing them," said Gus P. Coldebella, a partner at the law firm Goodwin Procter. Because hackers "count on the failure of vigilance," both businesses and individuals should update their anti-virus software the moment it becomes available; regularly change passwords, and never use public Wi-Fi unless it's encrypted, said Anthony Roman, president of Roman and Associates, a global investigation and risk-management firm. ___ (c)2014 the Boston Herald Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |