NEW YORK – Fast-food giant McDonald’s today said hackers have breached its servers and accessed data on customers in Taiwan and South Korea.
The announcement by the iconic United States chain on “recent unauthorised activity on our network” comes amid a wave of cyberattacks worldwide targeting everything from meatpacking plants to pipelines and public utilities, some of whom have had to pay ransoms to hackers.
“While we were able to close off access quickly after identification, our investigation has determined that a small number of files were accessed, some of which contain personal data,” said McDonald’s in a statement.
However, the files accessed do not contain information about customer payments, nor were operations disrupted, said the company.
“Based on our investigation, only Korea and Taiwan had customers’ personal data accessed, and they will be taking steps to notify regulators and the customers listed in these files.”
The firm said it is working with “experienced third parties” to investigate the breach, but did not provide details on the scale of the hack.
“A few additional markets will take steps to address files containing employees’ personal data,” said McDonald’s without elaborating. – AFP, June 11, 2021