Fall attendees of PAX East venue in Boston struck by massive credit card theft

Fall attendees of PAX East venue in Boston struck by massive credit card theft

Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, courtesy of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism.
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, home of the popular PAX East convention. Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism.

Fear not, PAX East attendees.

Your credit cards are safe, but the same can’t be said for hundreds of people who attended two fall conferences at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, home of the popular video game convention.

The Boston Globe reports that around 300 people who attended the American Society of Human Genetics meeting in October and the American Public Health Association gathering in November had their credit cards compromised.

Boston police are investigating the data breach, which appears to have impacted hundreds of more throughout the city, according to Detective Steven Blair.  “It’s extensive,” he told the Boston Globe on Wednesday. “It’s not just focused on the Seaport area.”

Representatives at BCEC, the adjacent Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel and several surrounding businesses said the data breach didn’t appear to occur within their establishments.

In a memo posted to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s website, Executive Director James E. Rooney assured future convention organizers and attendees that BCEC’s systems are secure.

“When you do business with us at the MCCA, know that your personal information is guarded by the most state-of-the-art security systems available,” he said, “and that our staff follows strict internal controls when it comes to performing financial transactions.”

Operators of the Westin and the City Bar and M.J. O’Connor’s restaurant that operate inside the hotel told the Boston Globe they found no evidence of a data breach.

Source: Boston Globe