Sally Beauty Says More Credit Card Records May Have Been Stolen

By John Kell 

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. said a continuing data breach investigation showed more credit-card records may have been stolen than the beauty-supplies company previously estimated.

After first disclosing an attempted data breach in the beginning of March, Sally Beauty nearly two weeks later said credit-card data from fewer than 25,000 customer records were illegally accessed and may have been stolen.

But on Friday, Sally Beauty, which hasn't yet fully determined the scope of the data breach, suggested the breach may have been worse.

"As a result of the continuing investigation, we now understand that a larger number of additional records containing payment card data may have been illegally accessed and removed from our systems," Sally Beauty said.

The company, which operates more than 2,700 Sally Beauty Supply stores in the U.S., has worked with the U.S. Secret Service and Verizon Communications Inc. to investigate the breach. Verizon's cybersecurity unit is looking into several data breaches at retailers, including one involving 40 million credit and debit card accounts at Target Corp.

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