Vera Bradley Investigating Payment Card Data Breach At Retail Stores

NOVI (WWJ) - Vera Bradley is investigating a reported data breach that could affect credit and debit cards that were used in its boutiques.

The popular handbag company says cards used at the stores between July 25 and Sept. 23 of this year may have been affected.

The company says, last month, they found unauthorized access to Vera Bradley's payment processing system and the installation of a program that looked for payment card data.

The program was specifically designed to find track data in the magnetic stripe of a payment card that may contain the card number, cardholder name, expiration date, and internal verification code as the data was being routed through the affected payment systems. There is no indication that other customer information was at risk, the company claims.

Customers are urged to check their accounts for any unauthorized activity.

"Vera Bradley has stopped this incident and continues to work with the computer security firm to further strengthen the security of its systems to help prevent this from happening in the future," the company said Wednesday, in a media release. "Vera Bradley values the relationship it has with its customers and understands the importance of protecting personal information and therefore sincerely regrets any inconvenience this may have caused its customers."

The company says it is containing to support a law enforcement investigation and is also working with the payment card networks so that the banks that issue payment cards can be made aware and initiate heightened monitoring on the affected cards.

There are three Vera Bradley stores in the metro Detroit area — at the Somerset Collection in Troy, Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, and the Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township.

Information on steps customers may take to protect their information can be found at this link. Those with questions can call 844-723-9340 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday.