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Sonic Drive-In disclosed in October 2017 that payment-card numbers may have been acquired through malware at certain locations. Reports at the time raised the possibility of a large incident, but the available evidence does not confirm that millions of Sonic customers were affected. The widely reported five-million figure described a batch of cards offered for sale—not a verified count of Sonic victims.

What happened in the Sonic breach?

Sonic said its payment-card processor alerted the company to suspicious activity on September 18, 2017. In a notice dated October 4, Sonic said its investigation found that credit and debit card numbers may have been acquired without authorization through malware at certain Sonic Drive-In locations.

The company did not identify the affected locations in that notice. Sonic said it contacted law enforcement and engaged third-party forensic firms to investigate. Its wording was cautious: card numbers “may have been impacted,” rather than a statement that every card used at a particular location—or every customer—was compromised.

Did the breach affect millions of customers?

A confirmed total of millions of Sonic customers is not established by the cited reporting. On September 26, 2017, KrebsOnSecurity reported that a batch of five million payment-card accounts was being offered for sale and that financial institutions had seen suspicious activity on cards previously used at Sonic. The report said the incident’s scope was unknown. The batch’s size does not establish how many cards came from Sonic, how many belonged to unique customers, or how many were affected by this incident.

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That distinction matters: “five million cards offered for sale” is a report about a batch, not Sonic’s confirmed victim count. Sonic’s own notice described possible exposure at certain locations but did not provide a definitive number of affected people.

Timeline of the incident

Date What was reported
September 18, 2017 Sonic’s fiscal 2017 annual report says its payment-card processor informed the company of suspicious activity involving cards used at certain locations.
September 26, 2017 KrebsOnSecurity reported a five-million-card batch offered for sale and suspicious activity involving cards previously used at Sonic; the scope remained unknown.
October 4, 2017 Sonic disclosed that card numbers may have been acquired through malware at certain locations. It said it had contacted law enforcement and hired forensic firms.
October 16, 2017 Sonic issued an investigation update describing a 24-month Experian IdentityWorks protection offer for guests who had used cards at Sonic that year.

What should you do if you used a card at Sonic?

The incident and the protection offer are from 2017. Sonic’s 24-month Experian IdentityWorks offer was described at the time for guests who had used cards at Sonic that year; the cited information does not establish that it can still be claimed.

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  • Consider a credit freeze if you are concerned about identity theft. A freeze restricts access to your credit file for many new-credit applications; contact the credit bureaus or consult current official guidance for how to place and lift one.

These are general steps for a present-day account concern, not evidence that a particular reader’s card was affected in 2017. Sonic’s notice also directed readers to contact their card issuer and consider a credit freeze.

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What the available records do not establish

  • The identities of all affected Sonic locations.
  • A definitive number of Sonic customers or payment cards affected.
  • That the five-million-card batch reported for sale consisted entirely of Sonic cards.
  • That the 2017 identity-protection offer remains available today.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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