McDonald's is the most recent high-profile business to suffer a data breach, exposing data of staff and customers in Asia and the United States.
An investigation discovered that the hackers accessed a small number of files that contained customer personal information in South Korea and Taiwan, according to a statement released by the fast-food chain on Friday.
However, it was said that no files included their payment details, as per the investigation. Mcdonald’s mentioned that necessary steps will be taken to contact and notify customers and regulators included in the files.
Franchisees and personnel were reminded by the company to be on the guard against phishing emails and to be cautious when providing personal data.
Moreover, a data hack compromised its operations in the U.S., according to the report first published by The Wall Street Journal. Business details, including square footage, were allegedly obtained, but not private or sensitive customer or staff information.
McDonald’s stated that some other markets will conduct measures to fix records that included staff and customer private information in the days ahead. But the company did not say which markets were affected by the security incident.
The company ascribed the detection of the incident to its "substantial investments" in cybersecurity tools. A McDonald’s representative said that they were able to quickly identify and control the latest unauthorized access on their system thanks to the solutions.
After the discovery of the illegal behavior on its system, the company stated it collaborated with third-party professionals to execute a full investigation on the incident.
McDonald's plans to utilize the results of the investigation in the future to strengthen its network security.
The company also reported that its operations were uninterrupted by the cybersecurity breach, which comes at a time of an alarming wave of cyberattacks targeted at high-profile businesses.
Cybercriminals are targeting companies in different industries. In the past few weeks, several high-profile businesses were reported to be victims.
For example, JBS USA, a meat processor company said that it experiences a ransomware attack. It led them to pay $11 million worth of bitcoin to the hackers who gained access to their systems.
Colonial Pipeline also faced a ransomware incident, which caused the East Coast petroleum pipeline to shut down. The company CEO was also interrogated by legislators regarding the issue.
On the other hand, hackers penetrated Electronic Arts' networks and stole source code for its video games.
