Posted on 03/30/2012 7:39:45 AM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
DEVELOPING: MasterCard is reportedly investigating a possible breach of cardholder account data involving a U.S.-based payment processor, the company said Friday.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Purchase, N.Y., credit-card company said law enforcement has been notified of the matter and an "independent data security organization" is conducting an ongoing forensic review.
The company is alerting card-issuing banks regarding "certain MasterCard accounts that are potentially at risk."
"MasterCard's own systems have not been compromised in any manner," a company spokesman told the newspaper.
The spokesman declined to say how many cards may have been compromised or how many banks it is notifying.
The breach was first reported early Friday by Krebs On Security, a blog by former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs. The blog also reported that Visa was also notifying banks about a breach involving a third-party payment processor.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/30/visa-mastercard-warn-massive-security-breach-report-says/#ixzz1qbwSteZA
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Hmm, last week I received new CCs with new numbers in the mail even though my current cards were not set to expire for 2 more years.
MasterCard Warns of Possible Data Breach
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577313411294908868.html
This is why you should always keep your credit cards maxed out...nothing to steal that way!
I’ll find out if something is up if I get a call from Bank of America telling me to immediately stop using my debit check card as they’re sending out a replacement....
My credit union sent me a new card a few months ago for this same thing. This is going to be like deja vu all over again since FOX was talking about credit unions again. oy.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/03/mastercard-visa-warn-of-processor-breach/
MasterCard, VISA Warn of Processor Breach
VISA and MasterCard are alerting banks across the country about a recent major breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor. Sources in the financial sector are calling the breach “massive,” and say it may involve more than 10 million compromised card numbers.
Yeah, notice how they include it’s ‘massive’ but don’t include if information was gleaned from the accounts, or money ...
But then it wouldn’t be a headline.
possible breach
Watch your money closely. My Husband gets alerts on his phone everytime a transaction occurs over $25 on our checking and savings accounts. (He really needs to get rid of that damn thing!LOL)
BofA just did that to me 2 days ago... waiting for the new check card....
A couple of months ago, my VISA notified me that someone in Turkey was trying to purchase round trip airline tickets to Dubai — using my number. They stopped the transaction.
However, they also cancelled my number and issued a new card — which took a few days to arrive.
This all happened during the end of the month cycle. I use the card to auto pay utilities and cable to rack up reward points. They had the old number and would not let me switch out, until they processed the bills — which bounced.
It was hassle. I got hit with late fees and had to cancel the original auto pay and re-sign with the new card number.
==
“BofA just did that to me 2 days ago... waiting for the new check card....”
One of our younger relatives has had an ongoing hate relationship with BofA for decades. A couple of his encounters were embarassing for BofA, and now they are very helpful when something happens to his debit card. He has had 3 replaced in the past 2 years. They watch his transactions like a hawk looking for rats and jump on any potential illegal actions.
Another younger relative has a lot of personal and business accts with another California based bank. He had a scam on his credit card a few yeas ago, and he told them that if someone $crews with his debit card, line of credit or their credit card, not only will they lose his businesses, his clients and those, who hire his company to do expensive jobs. Since then he has had a personal banker, a VP, with the bank. He gets calls from the VP when something is wrong or possibly wrong.
I'm guessing by the geography this is HSBC or other issuer which specializes in signing up people with spotty credit to their cards.
Typically, they charge annual fees of around $50 and give credit limits of around $300, which is immediately reduced by the annual fee.
The idea is to get the user to go over the limit as often as possible so they can generate additional over the limit fees. Predatory is one of the nicer adjectives to describe them.
“I got hit with late fees and had to cancel the original auto pay and re-sign with the new card number.”
Didn’t learn much from it, I see.
The Krebs article indicates full Track 1 and Track 2 data...enough information to produce counterfeit cards.
Lo and behold, I sign into my CC account, and I see a letter with this message:
“We are contacting you because your card number ending in XXXX was part of a data compromise and is at risk
for unauthorized use. To minimize this risk, we proactively issued you a new card number. You should have
already received or will shortly receive your new card in the mail.”
Which is why he won't get rid of that damn thing. But it proves he listens to you and follows your advice.
The article mentions credit union cards and use of parking garages in the NY area.
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