Islands, Champagne Bakery restaurants announce credit breaches

CARLSBAD (CNS) - People who visited Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks or Champagne French Bakery Cafe outlets earlier this year may have fallen victim to online theft of their credit information, the restaurant chains announced Thursday.

Between Feb. 18 and Sept. 27, thieves installed malware on payment-card devices at various of the restaurants' locations, according to the Carlsbad-based operators of the eateries.

The owners of the restaurant chains have begun an investigation into the crimes ``and took steps to end unauthorized access'' to the payment card systems, according to a statement from the companies.

The potentially affected credit card networks have been notified, according to the restaurant operators.

The malware was designed to look for data read from the magnetic stripe of payment cards as they were being routed through payment systems, company officials said. Data in the magnetic stripe includes the cardholder name, card number, expiration date and internal verification code.

In some instances, the malware only identified the portion of the magnetic stripe that contained payment card information without the cardholder name.

Lists of the restaurants involved and their respective time frames are available at: http://www.islandsrestaurants.com/paymentcardnotification and

http://www.champagnebakery.com/champagne-french-bakery-cafe-substitute-notice.

Anyone wanting more information about the credit breaches also may call 833-935-1380 or 833-935-1383 during weekday business hours.