Delta, Sears Customers Affected By Data Breach

A third-party data breach that occurred last fall affected Sears and Delta customers and involved unauthorized access to customers' payment cards, according to company statements.

The breach affected [24]7.ai, a company that provides services to other clients, including Sears and Delta. Both Sears and Delta issued separate statements confirming that they had been affected by the breach.

The breach began on Sept. 26 and was contained over two weeks later on Oct. 12, according to [24]7.ai, which announced news of the breach on Wednesday. The company said it notified law enforcement of the breach and is working with clients to determine if any customer information was accessed.

According to Sears, the breach affected less than 100,000 customers whose credit card information was accessed. Sears says [24]7.ai informed them of the breach in mid-March and a company investigation found that customers who conducted online transactions between the dates of the reported breach may have had their credit card information compromised. Customers using a Sears branded credit card were not impacted.

Sears says it has been assured that their company systems are now secure. Sears says they will be providing more information as updates are available.

Delta said it was notified about the incident on March 28. In a statement, the company said customer payment information during the reported breach period may have been accessed and that potentially "several hundred thousand customers" were exposed. Delta said information such as passport, government ID, security or Sky Miles information was not impacted.

"At this point, even though only a small subset of our customers would have been exposed, we cannot say definitively whether any of our customers' information was actually accessed or subsequently compromised," Delta said.

The airline has launched a website to answer questions related to the breach and will contact customers who may have been impacted directly.

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