Forever 21 - 815 Stores in 57 Countries with Thousands of Customers’ Financial Details at Risk

The famous fashion retailer Forever 21 said last Tuesday that, there may have been a data breach involving payment cards used at certain of its stores.

The company started the investigation after it received a third-party report suggesting an unauthorised access to payment details. Furthermore, the company said that the cards used between March and October are at a risk.

Forever 21 said only certain point of sale devices in few stores were affected when the encryption on those devices was not operating. However, the company has not yet revealed which of its stores were affected.

Forever 21 operates more than 815 stores in 57 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, India, Latin America and Philippines.

Ankush Johar, director at Infosec Ventures, said: "Encryption of payment details and the security of POS devices are the bare minimum, a retail organisation is supposed to do and failing to do that questions the basic auditing process of any company.

"Consumers that have recently shopped from these stores, should look out for any unusual transaction in their accounts and report to the bank immediately if they spot something fishy. Besides this, people who have made purchases between March to October are suggested to request a new card from their banks to be absolutely sure about their security."