Staples comes clean: 1.16 million bank cards at risk after hackThe StatementRelated Revelations

The Statement

Staples’s said their investigations had revealed that 115 point of sale systems of its more than 1,400 U.S. retail stores were attacked by a malware. Upon detection of the malware, Staples claims to have taken immidiate action to eradicate the threat. To this means, it has also been working with external security experts. In hindsight of the data breach and keeping with industry standards, the company will be providing  free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, identity theft insurance, and a free credit report, to customers who used a payment card at any of the affected stores during the relevant time periods.

As the part of the investigation, the company also came across a case of fraudulent credit card use in its Manhattan offices during the period of April to September of 2014. No malware use has been reported related to this case, but Staples is following the same security procedures as mentioned above to be on the safe side. Overall, the company believes that approximately 1.16 million payment cards may have been affected. Specific stores and dates can be found here. “Typically, customers are not responsible for any fraudulent charges on their credit cards that are reported in a timely fashion,” the company said in the statement. Staples customers who shopped at the affected stores during the relevant time periods should review their account statements and notify their card issuers of any suspicious activity. For more information about the report, you can access Staples report.