New York and New Jersey area Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th and Lord & Taylor are the latest stores hit by hackers. Cyber security firm Gemini Advisory recently announced that hackers have stolen the data records of approximately 5 million credit and debit cards. Hudson’s Bay Co., parent of the department stores, is investigating the situation, it said. “Once we have more clarity around the facts, we will notify our customers quickly and will offer those impacted free identity protection services, including credit and web monitoring,” the company said in a statement shortly after the cybersecurity company, Gemini Advisory, made news of the hack public. “We encourage our customers to review their account statements and contact their card issuers immediately if they identify activity or transactions they do not recognize,” the retailer said. Hudson’s Bay is examining whether the problem included those using company and non-company-issued credit cards. There is no indication the breach affected online customers, it said. For Hudson’s Bay, this is the second embarrassing breach in about a year. Last March, tens of thousands of Saks’ customers’ addresses and phone numbers were inadvertently put on the retailer’s Web site. Read more at NYPost.
