Events on Main hit by hackers

Events on Main owner Kari Rimbey has a few reasons to be thankful – 76 million to be more exact.

Hackers unsuccessfully attempted to work their way into the Events on Main credit card machine via Rimbey's merchant number Monday, causing debit and credit cards to not work at the terminal.

“It was just an attack on our merchant account,” said Rimbey.

The terminal was shut down Monday, and did not get back up and running until Tuesday afternoon, Rimbey said.

The hackers attempted to run the merchant number for $20,000 nearly every time cards were swiped ― and subsequently denied ― eventually racking the total up to $76,783,090. They were unsuccessful in capitalizing on the amount. Rimbey said this occurred over a three-day loop, but no card information was stolen from any card used during the period.

“It was an attack on my merchant number,” said Rimbey. “There was no compromise in the area.”

U.S. Bank informed Rimbey of the hack Monday morning when cards were being denied at her terminal. Rimbey wants the community to know that the attack was not local and card information is safe.

“It was not a local hack, just an online hacker trying to break in,” she said.

Rimbey added that her account has been re-configured, and the hackers are no longer able to make attempts at the machine. She said she is grateful they were not able to get in, and she is grateful to have not lost anything in the attack or to have fees or fines to pay as a result.

“There was no harm done to our account,” she said. “Just attempts to get in several times.”