California Pizza Kitchen Says Employee Data Stolen in Breach

American pizza chain California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is notifying employees of a data breach that might have resulted in some of their personal information being accessed by hackers.

The incident was identified on September 15, but the company says it needed several weeks to conclude its investigation. The company began sending out notification letters to affected individuals only on November 15.

Just over 103,000 people — current and former CPK employees — appear to have been affected by the data breach, the pizza chain told the Maine Attorney General.

“We immediately secured our environment and, with the assistance of leading third-party computer forensic specialists, launched an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident. On October 4, 2021, the investigation confirmed that certain files on our systems had been subject to unauthorized access,” the company told the affected employees.

Some of the compromised files, CPK explains, contained personal information related to its employees, including names and Social Security Numbers.

The company claims it has no evidence that the compromised information might have been misused, and says it decided to inform all of the potentially affected individuals “out of an abundance of caution.”

Furthermore, CPK says that it took steps to improve the security of its systems, including reviewing existing policies and implementing additional measures, to ensure that it can prevent similar incidents from happening.

“We also reported the incident to law enforcement and will cooperate with any investigation. We are notifying potentially impacted individuals, including you, so that you may take steps to protect your information,” the company notes.

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

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