Elephant Bar Restaurant Announces Security Breach

The owner of the Elephant Bar restaurants announced this week, that “a security incident possibly affecting the payment card information of some customers who made purchases at certain Elephant Bar locations in California, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, and Florida.”

The company was alerted to a potential security incident by its card processor on November 3.

The company is advising “potentially affected customers” of the incident and calling their attention to steps they can take to help protect themselves.

The company stated that it takes “the security of personal information very seriously, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this incident may cause.” It did not offer an explanation as to why it took over a month to notify the public.

According to the company, “it appears that unauthorized individuals installed malicious software on our payment processing systems at certain restaurant locations designed to capture payment card information, including cardholder name, payment card account number, card expiration date, and verification code.”

The company says the malware could have compromised payment card data for customers that made payment card purchases at the following locations:

In the statement release this week, the company claims that it has engaged “outside data forensic experts to assist us in investigating and remediating the situation. We have disabled the malware and have reconfigured our point-of-sale and payment card processing systems to enhance the security of these systems. In addition, we are in contact with law enforcement and will continue to cooperate with its investigation. We are also coordinating with payment card companies. While we are continuing to review and enhance our security measures, the incident has now been contained and customers can safely use payment cards at all Elephant Bar locations.”

“We want to make potentially affected customers aware of steps they can take to guard against fraud or identify theft. We recommend that customers review credit and debit card account statements as soon as possible in order to determine if there are any discrepancies or unusual activity listed. We urge customers to remain vigilant and continue to monitor statements for unusual activity going forward,” reads the statement. “If they see anything they do not understand or that looks suspicious, or if they suspect that any fraudulent transactions have taken place, customers should immediately notify the issuer of the credit or debit card. In instances of payment card fraud, it is important to note that cardholders are typically not responsible for any fraudulent activity that is reported in a timely fashion.”