Michael’s Arts and Crafts Store Dealing with Possible Data Breach

• By Ginger Hill
• Jan 27, 2014

Attention shoppers! Today’s blue light special is to immediately shred your credit cards and call the issuing companies, especially if you are a shopper at Target, Neiman Marcus and now Michael’s. That’s right, our neighborhood arts and crafts store is investigating a potential security breach of its’ retail infrastructure, and of course, should it be determined so, customer’s credit card numbers could be in jeopardy.

According to Michaels’ CEO Chuck Rubin, “We are concerned there may have been a data security attack on Michaels that may have affected our customers’ payment card information, and we are taking aggressive action to determine the nature and scope of the issue.”

Working closely with federal law enforcement and data security experts, Michael’s has also hired an independent forensics firm to help. One expert blog, Krebs on Security, stated, “Multiple sources in the banking industry say they are tracking a pattern of fraud on cards that were all recently used at Michaels.”

Unfortunately, no further details are available at this time.

I suggest that if you have recently shopped at any of these three retail stores – Target, Neiman Marcus or Michaels – that you immediately cancel all credit and debit cards and request new ones. Also, immediately review your statements to make sure that no suspicious charges are found. And, in the meantime, while the experts get this potential Michael’s data breach figured out, I suggest signing up for credit monitoring, and consider using good old hard cash for retail purchases. I can only imagine that we will be seeing these retail hacks more and more.

Photo courtsey of Martin Good / Shutterstock.com.