Barnes & Noble hacked. Is your credit card at risk?

Barnes & Noble has been hacked, and is warning customers of a data breach affecting 63 of its stores in nine states.

The breach was “a sophisticated criminal effort to steal credit card information, debit card information, and debit card PIN numbers from customers who swiped their cards through PIN pads when they made purchases,” New York-based bookseller said in a statement Wednesday.

States with stores involved in the breach are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

The hackers placed bugs to collect information on one PIN pad at each of the 63 affected stores, and only customers who used those specific PIN pads (less than 1 percent) are at risk, Barnes & Noble says.

As a precaution, Barnes & Noble has halted PIN pad use at each of its 700 locations nationwide. Customers can still make credit card purchases via cash registers.

The “customer database is secure,” the company statement read. “Purchases on Barnes & Noble.com, NOOK and NOOK mobile apps were not affected. The member database was also not affected. None of the affected PIN pads was discovered at Barnes & Noble College Bookstores.”

Customers who have used PIN pads at any of the affected locations should take the following steps:

Debit Card Users:

• Change the PIN numbers on debit cards
• Review account activity for unauthorized transactions
• If any unauthorized purchases or withdrawals are discovered, notify your bank immediately. 

Credit Card Users:

• Review statements for any unauthorized transactions
• Notify your bank if you discover any unauthorized purchases or cash advances

For further information, visit Barnes & Noble’s release, here.

Below is Barnes & Noble’s complete  list of targeted stores: