Forever 21 announces payment card data breach

The retailer says an unauthorized party accessed payment card data from some of its stores.

American clothes retailer Forever 21 suffered a data breach, the store said on Tuesday, when an unauthorized party accessed payment card data from some of its stores. The breach was found so recently that complete findings are not yet available.

The Los Angeles, California-based company contracted an unnamed cybersecurity firm to assist the post-breach investigation.

“Because of the encryption and tokenization solutions that FOREVER 21 implemented in 2015, it appears that only certain point of sale devices in some FOREVER 21 stores were affected when the encryption on those devices was not in operation,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The investigation is focused on in-store transactions from March 2017 to Oct. 2017.

The store advises customers to closely watch their credit card statements for any usual activity.

Founded in 1984, Forever 21 operates more than 815 stores in 57 countries with retailers in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, and United Kingdom, among others.