Dairy Queen Breach Puts Customer Data At Risk
A Dairy Queen breach was recently revealed by Brian Krebs, who runs the website Krebs on Security. When Krebs initially uncovered evidence of the Dairy Queen breach, the company was unwilling to believe that their customers’ debit card and credit card information had been stolen.
Dairy Queen denied the breach at first, rejecting the claim that the company had been victimized by computer hackers. However, the company did acknowledge that the majority of their stores are franchises, and individual franchisees do not have a procedure compelling them to report any security issues, including data breaches, to DQ headquarters.
Krebs discovered an increase in customers reporting fraud on their credit and debit cards after making a purchase at Dairy Queen. Customers reported unauthorized transactions being made at dollar stores and grocery stores using counterfeit copies of their cards.
After the U.S. Secret Service contacted Dairy Queen regarding “suspicious activity” related to malicious software called Backoff, DQ headquarters released a statement saying the company didn’t know how many of their own locations were impacted, but that they were working with authorities on the issue. Oddly enough, there is no mention of the breach on the official Dairy Queen website.
According to Star Tribune, Dairy Queen is not alone in their data breach woes. Earlier this month, Supervalu announced that their computer systems were breached by hackers, affecting the customer information from 1,016 grocery and liquor stores nationwide. Supervalu and United Parcel Service were both likely victims of Backoff malware, which was discovered in October 2013. According to Star Tribune, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that more than 1,000 U.S. retailers could be infected with Backoff. Michaels Stores, Neiman Marcus and P.F. Chang’s were three other companies that faced data breaches in 2014.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, one Dairy Queen employee became a hero when he caught a customer stealing $20 from a blind man. It all went down at the Hopkins, Minnesota Dairy Queen last year when a blind man standing in line dropped a $20 bill on the floor without realizing it. An elderly woman standing behind him scooped up the cash, but her dishonest act didn’t go unnoticed.
A Dairy Queen employee, believed to be a 19 year old named Joey, confronted the alleged thief. When the woman refused to return the money, Joey refused to serve her and asked her to leave the premises. The elderly woman left the fast food franchise, taking the pilfered bill with her. That’s when Joey did something really special. He reached into his own pocket and gave the blind man $20 of his own money.
Warren E. Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO), Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), Lubrizol, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, FlightSafety International and NetJets in addition to Dairy Queen. Berkshire Hathaway also owns fifty percent of Heinz and an unknown percentage of Mars, Inc. and American Express.
[Image via The Register-Guard]
