1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack
NEW YORK (BDCi) – A data breach at a payments processing firm has potentially compromised up to 1.5 million credit and debit card numbers from all of the major card brands.
Global Payments, a company that processes card transactions, confirmed late Friday that “card data may have been accessed.” The company said it discovered the intrusion in early March and “promptly” notified others in the industry.
Global Payments released a statement late Sunday with more details, saying that while more than 1 million card numbers may have been compromised, cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not affected.
Global Payments did not say which card companies were affected, but Visa released a statement on Friday saying that it was all of the big players.
Mastercard says it has alerted payment card issuers. Discover and American Express say they are monitoring the situation.
Global Payments held a conference call Monday to provide more details on the debacle. Executives stressed than an investigation is ongoing. Until that is complete, they’re holding off on going into specifics on how the hack happened.
By: Natania Levine Courtesy: ktla.com Photo: techi.com 2 April 2012
10:06 a.m P.D.T