Jewel-Osco stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa suffer data hack

Paige Leskin, City Editor

The two Jewel-Osco locations in Evanston were among the stores across Illinois, Indiana and Iowa hit by a credit card fraud incident on Monday, the second incident in two months that has impacted the chain.

The attack looked to obtain information from credit and debit cards used by customers at the grocery stores, according to a news release from Jewel-Osco. Personal information that was targeted includes account numbers, expiration dates, cardholders’ names and other private information.

Sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and birth dates, were not affected by the incident.

Customers who shopped at stores in the three states from June 22 to July 17 and from Aug. 27 to Sept. 21 were among those affected by the criminal intrusion, according to Jewel-Osco’s site.

Jewel-Osco’s parent company AB Acquisition LLC, which also operates other grocery chains, said it has told law enforcement of the security breach and is cooperating with authorities to ensure the incident is properly investigated and those responsible are found.

“We take our responsibility to protect our customers’ payment card data seriously,” Bob Miller, chief executive officer at AB Acquisition LLC, said in a news release. “We sincerely regret that our customers’ data was targeted. As a company, our decisions are always focused on what is best for our customers, and we know this issue has inconvenienced them and caused concern.”

The malware used in the latest attack is different than that used in the incident that occurred in August, according to Jewel-Osco’s information technology services provider SUPERVALU. The investigation into the first privacy breach is still pending.

In response to the possible data hack, Jewel-Osco is awarding to customers who fall under the proper location and time frame a year of free consumer identity protection service.

Jewel-Osco has two location in Evanston at 1128 Chicago Ave. and 2485 Howard St.

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