Golden Corral is offering two years of free credit-data monitoring to employees whose personal information may have been swiped when the chain’s computers were hacked last summer.
Exactly 183,272 individuals could have been affected by the four-day breach, the buffet chain said in an alert filed about 10 days ago with Maine’s attorney general.
The stolen information could include employees’ names and Social Security numbers, the filing noted.
At least eight law firms and three firms that compile individuals’ complaints into class actions are encouraging potential victims of the breach to join their efforts to take court action against Golden Corral.
The Maine complaint included a sample of the letter that Golden Corral apparently sent out to every employee whose information could have been stolen. The communication explains that “a temporary disruption to our corporate operations” alerted headquarters that its computers might have been hacked.
An investigation revealed that “an unauthorized actor accessed our systems and acquired certain data between August 11, 2023 until August 15, 2023.”
"We promptly launched an investigation, which determined that certain corporate operational information related to current and former employees, as well as dependents, were potentially impacted," Golden Corral said in a statement provided to Restaurant Business. "Due to protocols in place, customer data was not impacted as part of this incident."
The involved staff members were informed of the possibility that some of their data may have been stolen. In addition, Golden Corral said it started working with federal authorities immediately to correct the vulnerability and apparently find the culprit.
The potentially affected individuals were informed that Golden Corral was willing to fund two years of personal-data monitoring by Experian. The chain also forwarded information about how employees potentially exposed by the breach could bolster their defenses.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that information about Golden Corral customers could have been taken. In fact, customer information was never at risk. All of the exposed data pertained to employees, the company said after the initial story was posted.
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