

Fraud protection services will ease the stress of monitoring your credit for fraudulent activity and unusual behavior.ģ.) Monitor your accounts: It’s always wise to keep a sharp eye on your money – and that means more than just checking that your wallet is safe.
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These services don’t usually come free, although, in light of its recent data breach, Equifax is now offering a full year of protection with their TrustedID program, free of charge. Lastly, accept Sonic’s offer of two years of free fraud protection.Ģ.) Use fraud protection: Even if you haven’t been affected by this breach, it’s a good idea to sign up for fraud protection. This will warn creditors that you’ve recently been targeted in a hack, alerting them to verify that anyone seeking credit in your name is actually you. You can also place a fraud alert with the credit bureaus. If you spot suspicious activity, alert your card issuer and place a freeze on your account. Review your recent account information on all your cards. How can you protect yourself from this and all future data breaches?ġ.) Find out if you were affected: If you’re a regular, or even an occasional, Sonic customer, find out if you were affected by the breach. They have also promised to research ways for improving their current system to better protect customers in the future.

Sonic was also quick to hire third-party forensic experts to help investigate the attack and identify the hackers. Sonic has announced that it will offer all customers 24 months of complimentary fraud protection through Experian’s IdentityWorks program. While most cards with compromised info were linked to activity at one of Sonic’s locations, it is possible that other companies’ security systems were also breached.

It is still unclear exactly how many customers were affected by the breach, though it is estimated that there may be as many as five million victims in this malware attack. Approximately 90% of Sonic’s joints are franchises as well, thus adding to the delay.Īnyone who’s used a debit or credit card at any of Sonic’s locations during the last year may have been a victim in the breach. It took that long to determine the issue and resolve it because many of Wendy’s locations are franchises. This breach is similar to the one that hit Wendy’s last year, lasting nine months and affecting 300 restaurants. While Sonic was quick to share this basic information with the public, it can be months before more details are known and shared with concerned customers. The hackers then put this information up for sale online, where buyers can use the card details to rack up huge bills, empty accounts or even steal victims’ identities. The malware copied the information on every card that was swiped in the payment terminal, and then sent it back to the hackers. Using sophisticated malware, hackers were able to access the system. Sonic utilizes a single point-of-sale system that is deployed at the majority of its locations. Further investigation uncovered a tremendous data breach with the potential to affect millions of consumers. The breach became a reality when Sonic’s card processing company reported “unusual activity” on a large number of cards that had been recently used at Sonic. Here’s what you need to know about the latest in a long line of nationwide security breaches: The card numbers and details are now up for sale on the darknet. To top it all off, the popular burger chain Sonic Drive-in announced in late September that its payment portals had been compromised.Įxperts estimate that information for millions of cards was hacked from the nearly 3,600 Sonic locations across 45 states. The massive Equifax breach has already left many Americans feeling unprotected and insecure while Yahoo experienced yet another breach soon afterward. It’s been a rough go of things when it comes to the security of debit and credit card as well as personal information.
