Claire's Suffers Data Breach, Potentially Exposing Payment Data

Accessories retailer Claire's experienced a data breach on its e-commerce site beginning in April that compromised customer payment information, reports Bleeping Computer. The company discovered the MageCart attack on Friday, June 12 after it was revealed in a new report by cybersecurity firm Sansec. The attack consisted of hackers injecting malicious JavaScript scripts into various sections of Claire's website. This malicious script waits for a customer to check out and then attempts to steal their payment information. The retailer issued a statement, saying, "We removed that code and have taken additional measures to reinforce the security of our platform. We are working diligently to determine the transactions that were involved so that we can notify those individuals." The attack didn't affect transactions made in Claire's retail stores.

Total Retail's Take: Security threats to retailers' e-commerce sites are growing more advanced, and there's evidence that hackers are taking advantage of the confusion stemming from the coronavirus pandemic to conduct everything from ad fraud to gift card fraud. Claire's data breach comes at a time when most of the company's transactions occurred online due to nationwide store closures, and cyber criminals took notice. As the majority of brands and retailers move to e-commerce and direct-to-consumer sales, they would be wise to invest in tight security to avoid being hacked and losing brand trust. Retailers should take this data breach as yet another reminder to triple-check their cybersecurity efforts and ensure that customer information is protected. As Claire's customers learn about the breach and whether their information may have been compromised, it will be interesting to watch if brand loyalty and customer trust suffers.