Great Southern recalls debit cards over Wendy’s breach

During the past week, Great Southern Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: GSBC) ramped up efforts to protects its customers’ data following a possible security breach earlier this year at the Wendy’s fast-food chain.

Great Southern spokeswoman Kelly Polonus said fraudulent activity discovered recently on some of its customers’ debit cards prompted the Springfield banking company to close the accounts.

“It’s a small percentage of our debit card base,” she said, declining to disclose the number of affected customers. “It’s a limited time frame, and they would have had to use their card at a Wendy’s restaurant.

“To protect customers, we had to deactivate those cards.”

Polonus said some customers’ debit card numbers had been used illicitly.

In January, blog site Krebs on Security broke the news that Wendy’s was investigating claims of a credit card breach. That investigation is still underway, and some media reports state Wendy’s has been quiet on the number of restaurants that could have been affected and the time frame in which it occurred.

Polonus said Great Southern began informing customers that their cards could have been affected after the breach investigation was announced. She declined to say how much the company has spent securing its customers’ information.

“It’s the cost of doing business,” she said. “It’s part of monitoring and keeping our customers safe.”