Phishing attack tries to eat up Subway customer data

Members of the Subway loyalty club usually only have to busy themselves over whether to have a 12-inch “Sub” or a six incher but now it seems they have far more on their plate following a major email phishing campaign designed to gobble up their personal data.

Customers of the company started getting emails late last week from “Subcard”, purportedly about a Subway order that they have placed, including links to documents allegedly confirming the order.

According to a report from Bleeping Computer, analysis of the emails confirmed that they contain Excel documents embedded with Trickbot malware. This malware can steal personal information from infected systems and install ransomware.

In a statement Subway said: “We are aware of some disruption to our email systems and understand some of our guests have received an unauthorised email.

“However, the system which manages our email campaigns has been compromised, leading to a phishing campaign that involved first name and email. The system does not hold any bank or credit card details.”

The company insists that “crisis protocol” has been initiated, and that compromised systems have now been locked down.

Subway added: “The safety of our guests and their personal data is our overriding priority, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Censornet chief executive Ed Macnair told IT Pro: “This attack demonstrates the implications of not sufficiently protecting valuable customer email information. For cybercriminals email campaigns have proved such an effective and easy method of malware deployment over the past decade, if a company lets its database fall into the hands of an attacker they are putting their customers at serious risk.”

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