Kmart suffers security breach

Kmart is the latest retailer to have its payment data system breached.

Customer debit and credit card numbers may have been compromised, but no personal information, debit card PIN numbers, email addresses or Social Security numbers were obtained by the hackers, parent company Sears Holdings Corp. said Friday.

The company said the breach, which took place in early September, was detected Thursday. It did not say how many customers were affected.

Officials said there is no evidence Kmart.com shoppers were affected.

The news comes after a slew of data breaches at U.S. companies over the past two years.

Thursday, restaurant chain Dairy Queen, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., confirmed it may have compromised payment card information of customers across 46 states.

Kmart said it will offer free credit monitoring protection to customers who shopped with a credit or debit card in its stores in September and through Thursday.

-- Combined News Services