On June 13th, 2014, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro reported that there had been a breach involving customer’s credit and debit card information. The restaurant chain learned about the breach on Tuesday June 10th, 2014, and investigated the issue with the help of the United States Secret Service and third-party forensics experts.
According to forensic experts, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro’s data breach seems to involve a “highly sophisticated” gang. As it will take more time to completely resolve the issue, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro created a webpage to help their patrons to check whether their information had been leaked. Furthermore, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro immediately changed their payment system to a manual imprinting credit card system to prevent further damage. Only recently, has P.F. Chang’s China Bistro started to incorporate new encryption-enabled terminals in an effort to phase out from the manual imprinting system.
Rippleshot estimates that the credit card re-issuance alone will cost $49 million, and operating phone center and sending notification letters would cost additional $100M. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro is currently going through class action lawsuits, which may increase costs for each of these cases regardless of the court's decision.
In response to the breach, P.F. Chang’s has posted information on their website, including the location of 33 stores that were affected by the breach. P.F Chang’s encourages its customers to monitor their credit reports, which one can get from visiting www.annualcreditreport.com, or calling (877) 322-8228. P.F. Chang’s claim that the security breach has been contained and it is safe to use bank cards at P.F. Chang’s locations.
Compromised Details:
The compromised data includes personal identifiable information and bank card information such as:
List of States affected
| Arizona | California | Colorado |
| Florida | Illinois | North Carolina |
| New Jersey | Nevada | New York |
| Maryland | Missouri | Ohio |
| Oklahoma | Pennsylvania | Tennessee |
| Texas | Virginia | Washington |
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