Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) today announced that it has taken action to investigate and address an incident affecting payment card data used at its retail stores.
Payment cards used at Vera Bradley store locations between July 25, 2016 and September 23, 2016 may have been affected. Not all cards used in stores during this time frame were affected. Cards used on verabradley.com were not affected. Information on steps customers may take to protect their information can be found at www.verabradley.com/protectingourcustomers.
On September 15, 2016, Vera Bradley was provided information from law enforcement regarding a potential data security issue related to our retail store network. Upon learning this information, Vera Bradley immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of a leading computer security firm to aggressively gather facts and determine the scope of the issue and promptly notified the payment card networks. Findings from the investigation show unauthorized access to Vera Bradley’s payment processing system and the installation of a program that looked for payment card data. The program was specifically designed to find track data in the magnetic stripe of a payment card that may contain the card number, cardholder name, expiration date, and internal verification code as the data was being routed through the affected payment systems. There is no indication that other customer information was at risk.
Vera Bradley has stopped this incident and continues to work with the computer security firm to further strengthen the security of its systems to help prevent this from happening in the future. Vera Bradley continues to support law enforcement’s investigation and is also working with the payment card networks so that the banks that issue payment cards can be made aware and initiate heightened monitoring on the affected cards.
Potentially affected customers are advised to remain vigilant to the possibility of fraud by regularly reviewing their payment card statements for any unauthorized activity. Customers should immediately report any unauthorized charges to their card issuer because payment card rules generally provide that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges reported in a timely manner. The phone number to call is usually on the back of the payment card.
Vera Bradley values the relationship it has with its customers and understands the importance of protecting personal information and therefore sincerely regrets any inconvenience this may have caused its customers. If customers have any questions, they may call 844-723-9340 from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday.