Brian Krebs reports:
Nationwide beauty products chain Sally Beauty appears to be the latest victim of a breach targeting their payment systems in stores, according to both sources in the banking industry and new raw data from underground cybercrime shops that traffic in stolen credit and debit cards.
On March 2, a fresh batch of 282,000 stolen credit and debit cards went on sale in a popular underground crime store. Three different banks contacted by KrebsOnSecurity made targeted purchases from this store, buying back cards they had previously issued to customers.
Read more on KrebsOnSecurity.com. There is no statement on sallybeauty.com as of the time of this posting, but I suspect that may change by the end of the day.
Update: Less than 1 hour after posting above, their press release appeared online, although not yet up on their website. It appears they’re still denying that credit card data found for sale on the black market was from compromise of their customer data, but are still looking into it:
DENTON, Texas, Mar 05, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In response to rumors throughout the retail industry regarding security intrusions at various retailers, Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. issued the following statement on March 5, 2014:
Recently, our systems detected an attempted intrusion into our Sally Beauty Supply LLC network, and we believe we promptly mitigated potential issues arising from this intrusion. As a result of our ongoing investigation, which included assistance from a top-tier security firm, we have no reason to believe there has been any loss of credit card or consumer data. We will continue to investigate and actively monitor this situation.
About Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.
Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. SBH +0.80% is an international specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies with revenues of $3.6 billion annually. Through the Sally Beauty Supply and Beauty Systems Group businesses, the Company sells and distributes through 4,700 stores, including approximately 200 franchised units, throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Chile, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Ireland, Spain and Germany. Sally Beauty Supply stores offers up to 10,000 products for hair, skin, and nails through professional lines such as Clairol, L’Oreal, Wella and Conair, as well as an extensive selection of proprietary merchandise. Beauty Systems Group stores, branded as CosmoProf or Armstrong McCall stores, along with its outside sales consultants, sell up to 10,000 professionally branded products including Paul Mitchell, Wella, Sebastian, Goldwell, Joico, and Aquage which are targeted exclusively for professional and salon use and resale to their customers. For more information about Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc., please visit sallybeautyholdings.com .
Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this news release and the schedules hereto which are not purely historical facts or which depend upon future events may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “target,” “can,” “could,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions may also identify such forward-looking statement.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as such statements speak only as of the date they were made. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to: the highly competitive nature of, and the increasing consolidation of, the beauty products distribution industry; anticipating changes in consumer preferences and buying trends and managing our product lines and inventory; potential fluctuation in our same store sales and quarterly financial performance; our dependence upon manufacturers who may be unwilling or unable to continue to supply products to us; the possibility of material interruptions in the supply of beauty supply products by our manufacturers or third-party distributors; products sold by us being found to be defective in labeling or content; compliance with laws and regulations or becoming subject to additional or more stringent laws and regulations; product diversion; the operational and financial performance of our franchise-based business; the success of our e-commerce business; successfully identifying acquisition candidates and successfully completing desirable acquisitions; integrating acquired businesses; opening and operating new stores profitably; the impact of the health of the economy upon our business; the success of our cost control plans; protecting our intellectual property rights, particularly our trademarks; the risk that our products may infringe on the intellectual property of others; conducting business outside the United States; disruption in our information technology systems; reports that our information systems were breached; a significant data security breach, including misappropriation of our customers’ or employees’ personal information; a failure to detect and appropriately respond to a significant data security breach; severe weather, natural disasters or acts of violence or terrorism; the preparedness of our accounting and other management systems to meet financial reporting and other requirements and the upgrade of our financial reporting system; being a holding company, with no operations of our own, and depending on our subsidiaries for cash; our substantial indebtedness; the possibility that we may incur substantial additional debt, including secured debt, in the future; restrictions and limitations in the agreements and instruments governing our debt; generating the significant amount of cash needed to service all of our debt and refinancing all or a portion of our indebtedness or obtaining additional financing; changes in interest rates increasing the cost of servicing our debt; the potential impact on us if the financial institutions we deal with become impaired; and the costs and effects of litigation.
Additional factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements can be found in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2013, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Consequently, all forward-looking statements in this release are qualified by the factors, risks and uncertainties contained therein. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.