Payment card data stolen from diners at Boston restaurants

A number of area residents and tourists last month realized they were victims of credit card data theft, after patronizing popular metropolitan restaurants, according to the Briar Group, which runs Ned Devines, City Bar and Green Briar, among others.

The breach appears to have affected people attending conventions at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, CBS reports.

“As soon as the Briar Group became aware that our restaurants – and therefore our customers – may have been a target of this crime, we undertook an immediate investigation into this issue,” states a Dec. 27 company press release. “Today we are reporting that the Briar Group’s systems were indeed infiltrated.”

The company claimed all its systems were compliant with payment card industry security standards.

“The Briar Group also recognizes that our restaurants are in high profile locations visited by a number of out of town guests and visitors to Boston,” the press release continued. “We hope that this situation did not mar your impression of our wonderful city and can assure you that we are committed in our efforts to protect all credit card data. . . we are confident that the system is secure and that it is safe to use credit cards at our restaurants.” 

ThreatWatch is a regularly updated catalog of data breaches successfully striking every sector of the globe, as reported by journalists, researchers and the victims themselves.