Vera Bradley Customers Left Holding The Bag After Hack

When a company’s data is hacked, there’s the question of “who’s holding the bag?” In this case, it’s handbag company Vera Bradley and potentially its customers who shopped between July 25 and Sept. 23.

The Fort Wayne-based company said it was alerted by FBI authorities back in September after credit card data — including card numbers, shoppers’ names, expression data and verification codes — from payment processing systems may have been accessed by hackers. The company has begun an internal investigation, which has already showed that hackers installed a program into the payment system that ripped data.

The hack has caused a lag in the company’s website upgrading system and comes just before the holiday shopping season is set to begin.

Vera Bradley has not released how many in-store used cards were indeed affected, but no cards used through the company’s website were involved. The company has 112 stores and 44 factory outlets.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc. has been brought on to enhance security.