Personal data of fast food workers stolen in Yum! Brands ransomware attack

Yum! Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill fast food restaurants, is notifying an undisclosed number of employees of a data breach.

According to a breach notification letter, the personal information of individuals was stolen during the mid-January ransomware attack that forced nearly 300 restaurants to close down.

Compromised data included personally identifiable information (PII) including names, driver’s license numbers and identification numbers.

“We are writing to provide you with information about a cybersecurity incident involving your personal information that occurred in mid-January 2023,” the letter reads. “Once the incident was contained, we initiated a detailed review, with the assistance of outside specialists, to identify whether personal information belonging to individuals may have been present in files that were affected during the incident.”

Following the breach, the company said it also notified police and that it has enhanced the overall security of its systems to help prevent future incidents.

All impacted individuals were advised to closely monitor their account statements and credit reports, and remain vigilant against phishing attempts via phone, text or email.

“Yum! will never request sensitive information by phone or email,” the company explained.

The company also emphasized that it has no evidence of any impact on customers.

"In the course of our forensic review and investigation, we identified some personal information belonging to employees was exposed during the January 2023 cybersecurity incident," Yum! told BleepingComputer.

"We are in the process of sending individual notifications and are offering complimentary monitoring and protection services. We have no indication that customer information was impacted."

Worried about your private information ending up in the wrong hands?

Find out now whether your personal info has been stolen or made public on the internet, with Bitdefender’s Digital Identity Protection. The dedicated identity protection service helps you stay on top of data breaches and privacy threats, with 24/7 monitoring and instant alerts whenever your personal information is at risk.