Arts and crafts store chain Michaels said that it lost millions of customer payment card details.

The loss is similar to that experienced by Target in that as many as 2.6 million customer payment cards were captured by a piece of malware that infected their point of sale (POS) terminals.

The attacks occurred between May 8 of last year and February 27, 2014, and impacted roughly 7 per cent of all cards used in the US at Michaels. The compromised cards reportedly have been used for fraudulent activity.

The company said that it has employed two outside firms to investigate the matter. The breach was traced to a zero-day malware infection. The company gave no word on a possible source or point of entry for the breach.