Brinker International, the parent company operating over 1,600 Chili’s Grill and Bar restaurants worldwide, disclosed a payment card data breach on May 12, 2018, one day after discovering the security incident on May 11. The breach involved malware installed on point-of-sale systems at some Chili’s restaurant locations, active between March and April 2018, though the company did not disclose the exact number of affected locations or customers. The malware was designed to capture payment card data as it was processed through POS terminals, potentially compromising credit and debit card numbers and cardholder names. Brinker International did not identify the specific malware variant used, though the attack was consistent with RAM-scraping malware commonly deployed against restaurant and retail POS systems during this period. This type of malware intercepts unencrypted card data in memory during the brief moment between card swipe and encryption. Brinker engaged third-party forensic experts and notified law enforcement to investigate the scope and origin of the breach. The company advised customers who dined at Chili’s between March and April 2018 to monitor their payment card statements for unauthorized charges. The Chili’s breach was part of a broader pattern of POS malware attacks targeting the restaurant industry in 2017-2018, alongside similar incidents at Applebee’s, Sonic Drive-In, Jason’s Deli, and other chains. These attacks exploited the widespread use of magnetic stripe payment card technology and the distributed nature of restaurant POS infrastructure, where hundreds or thousands of individual terminals across locations created a large attack surface. The supply-chain element involves the POS system vendors whose products were compromised, though Brinker did not publicly identify the specific vendor or vulnerability exploited.