Over the past week, a malicious virus has been discovered on point-of-sale machines at more than 160 Applebee’s locations.

This virus has exposed credit card information from unknowing diners. In Kansas, three of the restaurants have been identified to have been infected — Topeka, Emporia and Manhattan.

The dates on which the stores were hit vary, but the majority were found to have occurred from November to January. All things considered, RMH, which owns the restaurants, responded quickly and contained the malware by early February. RMH was able to enlist the help of several cybersecurity forensic firms and reported the issue right away.

POS malware is becoming more and more prevalent for all retailers and medical industry businesses. Already in January, Forever 21 revealed their POS machines had been infected for almost eight months before being discovered.

RMH and the other companies strongly urge customers to monitor their bank accounts at this point. RMH acknowledges the ultimate safeguard against this kind of malware must come from the retailers themselves.

All in all, you really need to monitor your credit cards and bank accounts closely if you use debit/credit cards on the regular. RMH responded promptly and extremely well to this issue, but you never know what business is currently infected and no one has any clue.

Be wary and be cautious as malicious entities are springing up everywhere now. If you have any questions or concerns on possible malware or scams, give us at ETS a call at 785.628.1330 and we will help you out!