More Data Stolen

Saks, Lord & Taylor data breach may affect 5 million customers

By Mike Murphy

The data of millions of Saks customers appears to have been stolen.

Hackers have apparently stolen the credit- and debit-card data of more than 5 million customers from the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord & Taylor stores.

Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co., which owns the retail brands, confirmed the breach Sunday and said it was investigating it. “Once the Company has more clarity around the facts, it will notify customers quickly and will offer those impacted free identity protection services, including credit and web monitoring,” Hudson’s Bay said in a statement.


The luxury retailer said the thieves apparently used software in cash registers to steal card numbers between May 2017 and March 2018.

Hudson’s Bay HBC, -6.05%   did not say how many customers were affected, but last week, cybersecurity company Gemini Advisory said it found a Russian hacker group attempting to sell more than 5 million credit-card numbers on the dark web. On Sunday, the company said it had “a high degree of confidence that the compromised records were stolen from customers of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor stores.”

“Based on the analysis of the available data, the entire network of Lord & Taylor and 83 Saks Fifth Avenue locations have been compromised,” Gemini said in a statement. “The majority of stolen credit cards were obtained from New York and New Jersey locations.”

The hack is small in comparison to some of the most high-profile data breaches in recent years. A hack of Target Corp. TGT, -0.98%   exposed data for 40 million customers in 2013, a Home Depot Inc. HD, -1.33%   breach exposed 56 million card numbers in 2014, and the financial data of more than 145 million people were exposed by a Equifax Inc. EFX, -1.71%   breach last year.

Amid the ongoing industrywide retail crunch, the breach is another blow to Hudson’s Bay Co. Last year, the company was said to be discussing whether go private, and its chief executive stepped down in October. Helena Foulkes took over as CEO in February. The company’s stock is down 21% year to date, compared to the S&P 500’s 1.2% SPX, -0.85%   decline.