Fast-fashion chain Forever 21 Inc. is the latest victim of hacking.

The company today warned customers that it has detected a data breach within its point of sale network. Details on how the hack took place were scant, but Forever 21 claimed that customer payment card information was only compromised between March and October at certain point-of-sale devices in stores where encryption was not working. Neither where those devices were located nor in which countries was disclosed.

“Because the investigation is continuing, complete findings are not available, and it is too early to provide further details on the investigation,” the company said in a statement. “Forever 21 expects to provide an additional notice as it gets further clarity on the specific stores and timeframes that may have been involved.”

Speculating on a cause, Mike Kail, chief technology officer at CYBRIC Inc., told SiliconANGLE that he was “surprised and disappointed” to hear the news because it sounds like Forever 21 was not compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards.

“That is the first issue that they should disclose and whoever performed the audit should be held accountable,” Kail added. “This continued poor hygiene needs to end.”

Forever 21 isn’t the first company to have suffered a data breach of their POS terminals. The now Amazon.com Inc.-owned Whole Foods Market disclosed in September that some of its point-of-sale terminals had been hacked, resulting in the theft of customer data, including credit details. Other big names to be affected by similar attacks include Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Wendy’s Co. and Sonic Corp.

Steve Moore, vice president and chief security strategist at Exabeam Inc., previously told SiliconANGLE that these sorts of attacks “usually have a pattern that involves the use of stolen remote-access credentials from a service provider being used to deploy malware on store payment systems.” Whether that is also the case with Forever 21 may be confirmed at some point in the near future.

Photo: Rept0n1x/Wikimedia Commons