Pizza Hut Australia suffered a breach, exposing customer data

The Australian branch of one of the most well-known pizza stores worldwide, Pizza Hut, suffered a data breach incident that compromised customer data and order details. The breach allegedly occurred earlier this month, and the company estimated that there are about 193,000 customers affected by the incident.

The CEO of Australian Pizza Hut revealed the breach during its company’s dissemination of notification letters to its customers. The notification letters stated that an unauthorised third party had accessed the company’s data, prompting immediate defence protocols.

After identifying the issue, the company explained that they had bolstered their security measures. They have also contacted third-party forensic and cybersecurity teams to aid them in addressing the breach. Additionally, Pizza Hut Australia launched an investigation to understand the scope of the breach and enumerate the impacted information.

 

Pizza Hut customers should expect targeted phishing emails soon.

 

The confirmed information exposed during the Pizza Hut data breach includes names, delivery addresses, special instructions, email addresses, and contact numbers. The breach could compromise encrypted credit card numbers and hashed passwords for registered accounts.

On the other hand, the management assured its customers that the breach had not impacted the company’s operations, and they immediately reported the hack to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner since the Australian government requires every company to report these incidents.

The company has proactively communicated with the affected customers, advising them on safety measures and avoiding scams. Though, they have yet to disclose the stolen information’s timeframe.

A data breach website claimed to have obtained a sample of customer data from the alleged hackers earlier this month. The data matches Pizza Hut’s description, including the encrypted credit card information and hashed passwords.

This incident has caused massive concerns among its customers about the stolen data. Pizza Hut Australia, composed of 260 stores, has changed ownership, with US-based Flynn Restaurant Group acquiring it from Australian private equity firm Allegro Funds this year.

Pizza Hut customers should remain vigilant with unsolicited communications since threat actors could have acquired the exposed information, which they can use for malicious attacks, such as scams and phishing.