Sears Holdings' Kmart Stores Hit By Data Breach

(RTTNews) - Kmart, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) said that On October 9, its Information Technology team detected its payment data systems had been breached and immediately launched a full investigation working with a leading IT security firm.

Kmart noted that its investigation to date indicates the breach started in early September. According to the security experts it has been working with, its Kmart store payment data systems were infected with a form of malware that was undetectable by current anti-virus systems. It was able to quickly remove the malware. However, it believes certain debit and credit card numbers have been compromised.

Based on the forensic investigation to date, no personal information, no debit card PIN numbers, no email addresses and no social security numbers were obtained by those criminally responsible. There is also no evidence that kmart.com customers were impacted.

Kmart said it would be offering free credit monitoring protection to further protect its members and customers who shopped with a credit or debit card in its Kmart stores during the month of September through October 9, 2014.

Kmart said that it was working closely with federal law enforcement authorities, its banking partners and IT security firms in this ongoing investigation. It was deploying further advanced software to protect its customers' information.