If you bought anything from these 10 companies in the last year, your data may have been stolen

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If you bought anything from these 10 companies in the last year, your data may have been stolen

Saks Fifth Avenue

Northfoto/Shutterstock

Saks Fifth Avenue confirmed it had been the victim of a data breach last April.

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  • Data breaches are becoming common for all kinds of businesses, including retailers.
  • Since January 2018, at least 10 retailers and consumer companies were hacked and likely had information stolen from them.
  • Many of these breaches were caused by flaws in payment systems that were taken advantage of by hackers.
  • Retailers who suffer data breaches risk losing their customers' trust.

Data breaches are on the rise for all kinds of businesses, including retailers.

At least 10 consumer companies reported data breaches in the last year. Many of them were caused by flaws in payment systems either online or in stores.

A recent report published by cybersecurity firm Shape Security showed that 80-90% of the people who log in to a retailer's e-commerce site are hackers using stolen data. This is the highest percentage of any sector examined in the report.

These data breaches are a real danger for both companies and customers, as they can damage the trust shoppers have in brands.

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According to a study by KPMG, 19% of consumers said they would completely stop shopping at a retailer after a breach, and 33% said they would take a break from shopping there for an extended period.

Here are the consumer and retail companies that suffered a data breach in the last year:

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Marriot hotels

Marriot hotels

Marriot disclosed a massive breach of data from 500 million customers in late November.

Guests staying at any of the Starwood brand's hotels, including W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton, Westin, Element, and Aloft, on or before September 10, had their data exposed.

Exposed information included names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth, gender, and other Starwood account information.

Encrypted credit-card information was also exposed, and, potentially, the key to decrypt it.

"Marriott reported this incident to law enforcement and continues to support their investigation," the company said at the time. "The company has already begun notifying regulatory authorities."

Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and CEO, said: "We deeply regret this incident happened."

Kay Jewelers

Kay Jewelers

Signet Jewelers, parent company of Kay Jewelers, had a vulnerability in its website that exposed customers' information after they had purchased jewelry online.

By changing the link customers received confirming online orders, anyone could access information including customers' names, the order's billing address, shipping address, phone number, and email address, plus the number of items and total dollar amount for the order, the delivery date, and a tracking link.

Only the last four digits of a customer’s credit-card number were on the page, however.

The issue was fixed in November for orders going forward. It was fixed for past orders in December, according to Krebs on Security.

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Jared The Galleria of Jewelry

Jared The Galleria of Jewelry

Signet Jewelers also owns Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, which had the same vulnerability as Kay.

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen

Darden Restaurants announced in August that it had been notified by government officials that it was the victim of a cyberattack.

Customers who visited Darden-owned Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen between November 3, 2017 and January 2, 2018 may have had their credit-card information stolen. Darden estimates that 567,000 card numbers could have been compromised.

Customers affected would have visited a Cheddar's location in any one of these states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

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Macy's

Macy's

Macy's confirmed that some customers shopping online at Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com between April 26 and June 12 could have had their personal information and credit-card details exposed to a third party.

Macy's did not confirm exactly how many people were impacted. However, a spokesperson for the company said the breach was limited to a small group of people.

Macy's said in a statement: "We have investigated the matter thoroughly, addressed the cause and, as a precaution, have implemented additional security measures. Macy’s, Inc. will provide consumer protection services at no cost to those customers. We have contacted potentially impacted customers with more information about these services."

Adidas

Adidas

Adidas announced in June that an "unauthorized party" said it had gained access to customer data on Adidas' US website. Currently, the company believes only customers who shopped on and purchased items from the US version of Adidas.com may have been affected by the breach.

The data that is potentially at risk includes customer contact information like email addresses and physical addresses, as well as login information like usernames and passwords. The passwords were stored with an encryption, however, which would need to be unencrypted before they could be used.

Adidas did not say exactly how many customers could have been affected by the breach, but an Adidas spokeswoman confirmed it was likely "a few million."

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Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue

Hudson's Bay, the parent company of Saks Fifth Ave, confirmed in April that a data breach compromised payment systems and therefore customers' credit and debit cards.

Estimates of the amount of affected customers were not released, but it could number in the millions. Online customers were not affected.

Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor

Hudson's Bay also owns Lord & Taylor, and those stores were also affected by the breach.

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Under Armour's MyFitnessPal app

Under Armour's MyFitnessPal app

While Under Armour's store systems or online store weren't affected, the retailer confirmed in March that data from its MyFitnessPal app was accessed by an "unauthorized party."

Payment information was not released, but Under Armour says user names, emails, and encrypted passwords were affected. More than 150 million people's information was likely compromised.

Panera Bread

Panera Bread

Panera Bread confirmed on April 2 that it was notified of a data leak on its website.

At the time, it said personal information, including names, addresses, and partial credit card numbers may have leaked, though the company says the investigation is ongoing.

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