P.F. Chang's Confirms Security Breach, Launches Investigation With US Secret Service

P.F. Chang's on Friday confirmed a security breach involving credit and debit cards used at its restaurants.

Earlier this week, KrebsOnSecurity reported that stolen credit and debit card information appeared on an underground website. The data stolen had been used at P.F. Chang's locations from the beginning of March and May 19.

On Tuesday, Anne Deanovic, a spokeswoman for P.F. Chang's, commented "P.F. Chang's takes these matters very seriously and is currently investigating the situation, working with the authorities to learn more. We will provide an update as soon as we have additional information."

The company confirmed the breach on Friday and added that an investigation has been launched with the United States Secret Service and forensic experts. P.F. Chang's is currently using a manual credit card imprinting system for all continental U.S. restaurants, according the Wall Street Journal.

In a statement, the company's CEO Rick Federico said that the manual imprinting system "ensures our guests can still use their credit and debit cards safely in our restaurants as our investigation continues. Because we are still in the preliminary stages of our investigation, we encourage our guests to be vigilant about checking their credit card and bank statements. Any suspected fraudulent activity should be immediately reported to their card company."