San Antonio -- Aloha - Most of us think, that’s just a greeting used in Hawaii. But it's also a computer system restaurants across San Antonio use and it was recently breached.
News 4 WOAI has been able to confirm new details involving a case that started with
Aldaco’s Mexican Restaurant in Stone Oak. Back in May, Master Card, Visa and American Express card numbers, used at the restaurant, were stolen. While following up on this investigation, we found at least one other restaurant was affected; Local Coffee off Sonterra was also hacked.
Local Coffee has not released any information on how many customers were affected, but we do know they've been working with police to get this figured out. Our investigation also uncovered smaller businesses, like Local Coffee and Aldaco’s, may be the new target for hackers because use similar computer systems to ring up charges, with limited security.
Blanca Aldaco has spent the last few months beefing up her computer security system.
"I thought I was compliant. I thought I had the latest version of Aloha. I felt I had a DSL firewall; but it was not enough," Blanca Aldaco told us.
Hackers got in through an open internet port. They used a virus that captured and stored confidential information; then later allowed the hackers to come back and retrieve that information. More than 5,000 Aldaco's customers were affected.
Sergeant Martin Landgraf works on cases just like this one. He admits security breaches happen more often than the regular customer realizes.
"Even having the best firewall in the world, these are professionals from all over the world that come in and hack these things,” Sergeant Landgraf explained. “They are good. And if they want it bad enough, they're going to get it."
Sergeant Landgraf tells us smaller businesses seem to be the new target. To save money, owners often secure their computers with the bare minimum. They don't update their software or scan their systems regularly for high-tech viruses. It can be a costly mistake.
Aldaco's recently installed a high-tech security system on its computers. It cost Blanca a lot of money; but she says it's well worth it if it will keep her business and her customers safe.
Sergeant Landgraf did have some suggestions that can help protect your money:
*Constantly check your credit card and banking statements.
*If you think your account has been breached, put a
fraud alert on your credit file.
*Work closely with your bank to get the problem resolved.
