P.F. Chang's may have been victim of data breach

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The restaurant chain P.F. Chang's is investigating a data breach involving credit-and debit-card numbers.

Customers of the popular restaurant chain are concerned they may be one of thousands who might have had their information stolen.

P.F. Chang's China Bistro released the following statement Wednesday regarding the possible breach: "P.F. Chang's takes these matters very seriously and is currently investigating the situation, working with the authorities to learn more. We will provide an update as soon as we have additional information."

The report of the security breach came from cyber security blogger Brian Krebs, who uncovered the data breach at Target and other retailers.

His website, krebsonsecurity says customer data from credit-and debit-cards previously used at the restaurant chain went up for sale on the underground store called Rescator that sold tens of millions of cards stolen in the Target breach. The report says the cards were used from the beginning of March 2014 to May 19, 2014.

Ira Kalb, a marketing expert, says P.F. Chang's needs to be as transparent as possible in order to calm worried consumers.

"If you lose the trust, you've lost everything, so the important thing is that you have to make the customer feel comfortable that if something bad does happen, you're going to take care of it," Kalb said.

P.F. Chang's may be the latest victim, but many customers have been rethinking the way they spend their money after hackers compromised 40 million credit-and debit-cards from retail giant Target last year.

"It makes me think about my grandmother who doesn't use banks at all at. It's getting to a point where we can't trust banks... it doesn't feel safe anymore," Sharon Barclay of Burbank said.

It's unclear how many P.F. Chang's may have been targeted. The Scottsdale-based company owns 211 full-service P.F. Chang's restaurants nationwide.