Data breach might have affected restaurants at Disney Springs

If you’ve eaten at several different restaurants in Central Florida in the last 10 months, you may want to check your bank statements. 

There were three restaurants inside Disney Springs and three other restaurants in Central Florida that were potentially affected by a data breach. 

A cyber security expert told Fox 35 that millions of people could have been impacted.

Some folks visiting Disney World in the last 10 months may not be feeling so magical. 

Earl Enterprises announced it had a data breach, affecting six restaurants it owns. Three of them are in Disney Springs. They include Planet Hollywood, Chicken Guy! and Earl of Sandwich.

“Years ago it was robbing banks and breaking into people's homes. Now, it's breaking into companies and people's website,” said cyber security expert James McQuiggan.

A statement from Earl Enterprises reads, in part: 
“Based on the investigation, it appears that unauthorized individuals installed malicious software on some point-of-sale systems at a certain number of Earl Enterprises’ restaurants.”

The breach took credit and debit card numbers, and some names from customers who visited between May 2018 and March 2019. 

So, why would it take so long to realize? 

“It comes down to either they're not looking for it, or they don't have the tech in place to monitor it, or the bad actors, they're getting better and better,” McQuiggan said.

Restaurants at Disney weren’t the only potential victims.

It also affected Buca Di Beppo locations, and there are three of them here in Central Florida. 

“They're targeting everybody,” McQuiggan said.

If you ate at any of these locations in the last 10 months, check your statements or call your bank.

“A lot of the time banks are going to be aware of this already and they're going to be canceling those cards,” he said.

Disney says it has no reason to believe their systems were affected, but they are reviewing it.

Earl Enterprises say it's closely monitoring its security system and adding extra security to protect people in the future.