60,000 customers affected due to Walmart Canada hack

Unknown hackers hacked into Walmart Canada’s Photocentre online photo processing website. In response Walmart Canada closed down its Photocentre online photo processing website in reply to what it described as a “potential compromise of customer credit card data.”

“Our customers’ privacy is of the utmost importance,” the company stated. “We immediately launched an investigation and will be contacting customers who may be impacted.”

While the company says it does believe that Walmart.com, Walmart.ca, or in-store purchases have not been compromised, however, it does suggest that all Walmart Canada Online Photocentre customers check their card accounts cautiously and notify their financial institution of any charges that are not authorized.

Walmart Canada added “We have also notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and will continue to work proactively with Canada’s privacy regulators as the investigation continues.”

Customers with concerns or queries are recommended to contact (888) 763-4077.

As many as 60,000 customers could be affected, an unidentified source told The Mail and Globe.

Walmart Canada’s Photocentre website is managed and run by a third party service provider, PNI Digital Media, which was bought by Staples in 2014. PNI also collects customers’ credit card information.

“We take the protection of information very seriously. PNI is investigating a potential credit card data security issue,” said a Staples spokesperson in a statement provided to The Star.

The spokesperson added “If an issue is discovered, it is important to note that consumers are not responsible for any fraudulent activity on their credit cards that is reported on a timely basis.”

PNI Digital says on its website that it powers “19,000 retail locations and 8,000 in-store kiosks”. It is yet to be known if other retailers serviced by the firm were affected. None of the retailers have provided details as to how many of their users might have been affected by the cyber-attack.

Last fall, Staples had experienced a data breach when banks recognized a pattern of debit and credit card fraud pointing that many of the Staples locations in the northeastern U.S. had been affected with point-of-sale malware. Later, the company accepted that 115 stores were affected, and approximately 1.16 million customer debit and credit card may have been infected.