Whole Foods investigating breach tied to point-of-sale systems

Whole Foods Market, the American grocery giant recently purchased by Amazon, announced on Thursday it’s investigating the unauthorized access of payment card information via some of the company’s point-of-sale systems.

In a statement posted on the Whole Foods website, systems “used at certain venues such as taprooms and full table-service restaurants located within some stores” were leveraged to access payment data.

The impacted stores use different systems than Whole Foods’ primary point-of-sale system, the company said in a statement.

Additionally, the company says Amazon systems do not connect to the affected Whole Foods systems, and transactions on Amazon.com have not been impacted.

The preliminary statement was is short on specific information: The scope of breach, who was hit and who has been notified has not yet been announced. The company operates more than 460 stores throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Whole Foods says its retained the services of a “leading cybersecurity forensics firm.” Law enforcement is also currently investigating the issue.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.