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  1. #1
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    40 Million Credit Card Numbers Hacked

    This is bad. I would recommend everyone check their credit reports!



    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... rrer=email

    40 Million Credit Card Numbers Hacked
    Data Breached at Processing Center

    By Jonathan Krim and Michael Barbaro
    Washington Post Staff Writers
    Saturday, June 18, 2005; Page A01

    More than 40 million credit card numbers belonging to U.S. consumers were accessed by a computer hacker and are at risk of being used for fraud, MasterCard International Inc. said yesterday.

    In the largest security breach of its kind, MasterCard officials said all credit card brands were affected, including 13.9 million cards bearing the MasterCard label. A spokeswoman for Visa USA Inc. confirmed that 22 million of its card numbers may have been breached, while Discover Financial Services Inc. said it did not yet know if its cards were affected.



    Signage for CardSystems Solutions Inc. located in Tucson, Ariz. is seen Friday, June 17, 2005. A security breach of customer information at CardSystems Solutions Inc., a credit card transaction company, could expose to fraud up to 40 million cardholders of multiple brands, MasterCard International Inc. said Friday. The credit card giant said its security division detected multiple instances of fraud that tracked back to CardSystems Solutions Inc., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants.

    An entire industry has mushroomed during the past decade because of the ability of companies to gather and make sense of public records, criminal histories and other electronic details. What are they doing with it?


    MasterCard officials said consumers are not held responsible for unauthorized charges on their cards, and that other sensitive personal data, such as Social Security numbers and birth dates, were not stored in the hacked system. So far, no evidence of fraudulent charges has emerged, they said.

    The breach occurred late last year at a processing center in Tucson operated by CardSystems Solutions Inc., one of several companies that handle transfers of payment between the bank of a credit card-using consumer and the bank of the merchant where a purchase was made.

    CardSystems' computers were breached by malicious code that allowed access to customer data, said Josh Peirez, a MasterCard senior vice president.

    Peirez said MasterCard is certain only that 68,000 of its numbers were taken by the hacker over an unknown amount of time before the breach was discovered. But because the hacker had access to the full database, it is difficult to say how many more numbers may have been taken, he said.

    He said the breach was not confirmed until about two weeks ago.

    MasterCard said it has begun notifying banks that issue its cards, which in turn are responsible for notifying cardholders.

    A teeming black market for stolen credit card numbers allows thieves to make quick purchases, pinning the loss on merchants, which do not get paid when the charge is discovered to be fraudulent. Identity theft experts said credit card numbers, even those that are canceled, have value because they can be used to help establish the credentials of a thief seeking to pose as a consumer to obtain other sensitive personal data.

    Officials at MasterCard and Visa accused CardSystems of not meeting agreed-upon computer security standards. Peirez said CardSystems is being given a short time to make corrections.

    "We have requirements," Peirez said. "In this case, it does not seem those standards were being followed."

    Visa spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz said CardSystems did not comply with Visa's security rules when the breach occurred, though she would not elaborate on what went wrong.
    Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God

  2. #2
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Guess I'm not at risk since I have 2 Visa cards.
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  3. #3
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    visa also

    Brian read paragraph 2 (22 million visa holders possibly breached)
    Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God

  4. #4
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Thanks, I skimmed through the article quickly and missed that part. I'll have to keep a close watch on my cards for any fraudulent charges.
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