McMenamin’s Employee Data Compromised from Last Century

The McMenamin’s restaurant chain was recently subjected to a ransomware attack which locked up and possibly copied its employee files. All McMenamins are open for business, but some of its computer-dependent systems such as hotel reservations are being kept offline to ensure that no more information is compromised. 

There is no indication that any customer credit card information was acquired during the attack since customer information is only held by the company for long enough to confirm that money has been transferred to the business – meaning a piece of software would have to lurk undetected on a business’s computer for a long period in order for it to acquire the information of more than a few customers.  

In any event, a McMenamin’s press release declared, “[a] payment processing service manages the collection of such information. Further, this information is not stored on company computer systems impacted by the attack.” For the time being, all payments at McMenamin’s pubs and hotels are being processed without using scanners or any other form of online equipment. 

The company first announced the attack on Dec. 15, 2021, and warned all employees who had worked for the company between July 1, 2010 and Dec. 12, 2021 that their information may have been compromised. Since then, they have extended their warning to cover information dating back as far as January of 1998.   

By John M. Burt