Michaels Stores in Boardman, Niles affected by data breach

BOARDMAN

The data breach at Michaels Stores Inc. included the Boardman and Niles locations, according to the company’s website.

The company confirmed last week that up to 2.6 million debit and credit cards used at its arts and crafts stores may have been affected in a security breach. The Boardman Plaza store’s dates of exposure run from May 8 to Aug. 10, from Aug. 30 to Oct. 7, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 24, all 2013 and from Dec. 12, 2013 to Jan. 19 of this year.

The Niles’ store’s dates of exposure are from May 8 to July 29, 2013.

A letter on the company’s website from the chief executive officer says the company’s systems were “attacked by criminals using highly sophisticated malware that had not been encountered previously by either of the security firms.”