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McDonald’s is the latest huge company to be hit by a cyber attack. According to the Wall Street Journal, bad actors who infiltrated their systems were able to steal customer and employee information from their businesses in the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. No data was stolen from customers in the United States, in particular, but the hackers got away with the contact information of American employees and franchisees. They also helped themselves to store some information, including the capacity of the seats and the size of the playing areas.
However, in South Korea and Taiwan, hackers were able to steal customer information, including people’s emails, phone numbers, and delivery addresses. The names and contact details of the Taiwanese employees were also stolen. Fast food chain The Journal has confirmed, however, that a customer’s payment information was not affected in this data breach.
The company discovered the incident after it hired outside consultants to investigate unauthorized activity on its internal security system. McDonald’s cut off unauthorized access a week after it identified the three markets, and credits increased investment in cybersecurity in recent years for its ability to trigger a rapid response. It’s worth noting that investigators have also flagged South Africa and Russia, and McDonald’s said it will inform those departments of possible unauthorized access to their information.
“Going forward, McDonald’s will benefit from the results of the investigation as well as input from security resources to identify ways to further enhance our existing security measures,” the fast-food giant said in a statement.
While the bad actors got rid of some sensitive information, the ransomware was not involved in this incident unlike the attacks that hit JBS, Colonial Pipeline and many other companies. JBS, one of the largest meat suppliers in the United States, paid the equivalent of $11 million in ransom. Meanwhile, Colonial Pipeline paid its attackers 75 bitcoin (worth about $4.3 million at the time) after the hack led to fuel shortages across the East Coast. However, the Department of Justice was able to recover 63.7 bitcoins from the ransom paid by obtaining a private key to the hackers’ wallet.
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