You Heard About the Whole Foods Data Breach, Didn’t You?
Put Whole Foods down as yet another organization to suffer a data breach, as shoppers at several of its locations learned in late September.
The grocer announced on Sept. 28 that it had “recently received information”about a third party having “unauthorized access” to payment card information at venues including taprooms and restaurants within Whole Foods stores. It created a database consumers can check, to determine whether a location they visited was impacted.
This announcement came just a few weeks after credit agency Equifax announced its own breach that potentially impacted some 145 million U.S. adults, and caused concern and confusion among consumers who were informed their personal data was at risk.
In the media and among consumers, the enormity of the Equifax data debacle overshadowed the Whole Foods breach. This may be symptomatic of a larger problem: Consumers have become desensitized as more breaches have occurred and sometimes feel helpless. “Consumers are getting breach fatigue,” said Rick McElroy, a security strategist at the firm Carbon Black.
But many consumers are worried about their personal data, and lawmakers are growing weary of the slew of data breaches, McElroy said. Between incidents at the Internal Revenue Service, insurance company Anthem and most recently at Equifax, it has become increasingly likely that American consumers have had a personal brush with a data breach.
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