[BreachExchange] Wawa data breach: Convenience chain facing lawsuits over security incident at all of its stores

[Destry Winant]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/12/27/wawa-data-breach-convenience-store-chain-hit-customer-lawsuits/2759892001/

The Wawa convenience store chain is facing a wave of lawsuits over a
data breach that affected its 850 locations along the East Coast.

Wawa discovered malware on its payment processing servers this month
before stopping the breach Dec. 12, the company has said. Officials
with the company, based in Wawa, Pennsylvania, believe the malware had
been collecting card numbers, customer names and other data since as
early as March.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday that at least six lawsuits
seeking class-action status have been filed in federal court in
Philadelphia.

“The data breach was the inevitable result of Wawa’s inadequate data
security measures and cavalier approach to data security,” said one
suit, filed by the law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner &
Donaldson-Smith, of Haverford.

A Wawa spokesman declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The breach affected all stores, which stretch along the East Coast
from Pennsylvania to Florida. In-store payments and payments at fuel
dispensers were affected, but cash machines were not.

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Wawa has said it will offer free credit card monitoring and identity
theft prevention services to anyone whose information might have been
collected.

Police are investigating, and the company has also hired a forensics
firm to conduct an internal investigation.