Clothing boutique loses nearly 100,000 credit card details.
Clothing chain Forever 21 has become the latest retailer to suffer a major data loss.
The company said in a bulletin that its systems had been breached and credit card details for some 98,000 customers may have been stolen.
Only customers who shopped at the stores on certain dates in March June and July of 2004 and August of 2007 are considered to be at risk. Users who shopped at the Forever 21 store in Fresno, California are also at risk. The company is advising users who may be at risk to monitor their accounts for possible fraud.
The attackers are believed to have only obtained credit card numbers and expiration dates. No customer names or addresses are believed to have been stolen.
The company said that the theft is part of a larger attack that included twelve other retailers, and security experts believe that the attackers may have been part of the same group that caused the massive TJX data thefts.
"One of the things that is interesting in this case is that it appears to be linked to the charges being brought against 11 men who allegedly hacked into other major retail companies and stole more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers," noted Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley.
"Companies affected in that heist included the likes of Barnes & Noble, OfficeMax, and TJX."