The US fast food outlet Chick-fil-A is investigating a potential payment card breach, in what could be latest major card fraud among American retailers.
The company was alerted to unusual activity on December 19 and has since enlisted the help of several cybersecurity firms, the financial industry and police.
"We want to assure our customers we are working hard to investigate these events and will share additional facts as we are able to do so," said a statement released by Chick-fil-A.
"If the investigation reveals that a breach has occurred, customers will not be liable for any fraudulent charges to their accounts – any fraudulent charges will be the responsibility of either Chick-fil-A or the bank that issued the card."
An anonymous financial source told cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs that 9,000 cards issued by his firm had been listed in an alert over a breach that ran from December 2, 2013 until September 30, 2014.
Although the fast food outlet was unnamed in the alert, the source claimed that the only common link was Chick-fil-A, adding that the number of bank cards impacted in this instance was greater than the breach against the US grocer Target that took place in 2013.
Chick-fil-A was keen to emphasise that the reports they had received only involved activity at "a few of our restaurants", and added that they would arrange for free identity protection and credit monitoring for any customers that might be affected.
