Posted on 06/17/2005 4:13:09 PM PDT by HAL9000
NEW YORK - A security breach of customer information at a credit card-processing 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. of Tucson, Ariz., which processes transactions for banks and merchants.
MasterCard said in a news release late Friday afternoon that it was notifying its card-issuing banks of the problem.
CardSystems was hit by a computer virus that captured customer data for the purpose of fraud, said company spokeswoman Sharon Gamsin. The FBI was investigating.
MasterCard, which said about 14 million of its own cards were exposed, said it was giving CardSystems a "limited amount of time to demonstrate compliance with security requirements."
John Perry, chief executive officer of Cardsystems, did not immediately return calls. Nor did officials from American Express and Visa; Discover had no immediate comment. MBNA, a large issuer of cards, also did not immediately return a call.
The breach is the latest in a series that has hurt a number of high-profile companies - including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and DSW Shoe Warehouse.
It also appears the largest involving financial data, said David Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
"The steady stream of these disclosures shows the pressing need for regulation of the industry both in terms of limitation in the amount of personal information that companies collect and also liability when these kinds of disclosures occur," Sobel said.
That the breach involved a third party also "indicates that this is a shadowy industry where the consumer never really knows who is going to be handling and using their personal information," he added." Presumably, the affected consumer thought they were dealing with MasterCard."
Earlier this month, Citigroup said United Parcel Service lost computer tapes with sensitive information from 3.9 million customers of CitiFinancial, a unit that provides personal and home loans.
There have also been breaches involving other kinds of sensitive data.
ChoicePoint Inc. said in February that thieves using stolen identities had created 50 dummy businesses that pulled data including names, addresses and Social Security numbers on as many as 145,000 people.
In March, LexisNexis Inc. disclosed that hackers had commandeered a database and gained access to the personal files of as many as 32,000 people.
The company has since increased its estimate of the people affected to 310,000. Information accessed included names, addresses and Social Security and driver's license numbers, but not credit history, medical records or financial information, corporate parent Reed Elsevier Group PLC said in a statement.
"Hardly a week goes by without startling new examples of breaches of sensitive personal data, reminding us how important it is to pass a comprehensive identity theft prevention bill in Congress quickly," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Will PayPal be next...
Name an OS that has no vulnerabilities or weaknesses.
Well I hope everyone takes this series, I had a MC fraudulently maxed out a couple of days ago..fortunately my bank called to verify the purchases and I don't think they authorized them..cancelled and reissued card...apparently they used the number without the card or made a false card as I still had mine..
That's my suspicion too.
Who better to protect us? He knows *ALL* the tricks...
"Name an OS that has no vulnerabilities or weaknesses."
Name one that even comes close to MS, in sheer number of vulnerabilities or weaknesses.
"Will PayPal be next..."
A business associate of mine had a checking account wiped out, and, according to him, the earliest sign of what was to come was a fraudulent account set up on PayPal, which was used to verify funds. Not to steal the money in the account, mind you. There were checks cashed all over the country, Delaware, Ohio, California. Organized ring.
The thief deserves most of the blame, but the idiot who left the door open deserves some too. Bill Gates should be keelhauled for his lousy OS designs.
In other words, you can't.
"In other words, you can't."
Fair enough. It's also fair to say that you can't name an OS that even comes close to MS, in sheer number of vulnerabilities and weaknesses, isn't it?
AnytimeI see 'series' in a post I skip it. It and 'hugh' quit being funny long ago. No attack on you but when there is a serious post we should treat it as such.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that CardSystems was hit by a computer virus -
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111904046233462938,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
Laurel and Linda probably are busy too, right now. Amazing that they don't have anything about this on their web site.
http://www.cardsystems.com/executives.html#lwadlund
LINDA P. FORD
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, LEGAL COUNSEL
Linda P. Ford currently serves as Senior Vice President, Legal Counsel for CardSystems. Linda has more than 17 years industry experience in the area of risk management, contract administration, acquisition legal and risk due diligence, collections, compliance and human resources.
Prior to joining CardSystems, Linda served as Vice President and legal counsel for Financial Alliance, a leading independent sales organization acquired by NPC and has held positions with Brown-Forman Enterprises and Citizen's Fidelity Bank & Trust (now PNC KY). She has also served as legal counsel for a number of well-known industry organizations and developed and taught industry training classes for industry associations.
LAUREL E. WADLUND
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Laurel Wadlund currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at CardSystems. With over 10 years experience in the payment processing industry, Laurel heads the design, development, and implementation of CardSystems' products and applications. This includes development of back office management, fraud, chargebacks and reporting solutions.
Prior to joining CardSystems, Laurel focused on business analysis and design at Paymentech. In addition, she has extensive software development experience in transaction management services. This includes medical, financial, and government related enterprises. Laurel is well versed in the current methodologies of product management, from product requirements to the technical design and implementation of high-tech projects.
MSM doesn't know the difference between a virus, trojan, and the common cold.
"AnytimeI see 'series' in a post I skip it. It and 'hugh' quit being funny long ago."
Oh, stop it... it's sort of an in-group slang by now, kind of a Freeper patois. I don't use it either, but what's the harm, other than having to look twice to understand whether they actually meant series or serious, or, even worse, unintentionally writing "hugh" for huge?
The CardSystems CEO is now complaining "We were absolutely blindsided by a press release by the association" and refusing to answer any questions.
http://www.cardsystems.com was running Microsoft-IIS on Windows 2000 when last queried at 17-Jun-2005 22:08:42 GMT
"Oh, and they need to protect personal information. They sure don't cut their customers any slack. They shouldn't get any, either."
I was told, while working for a good-sized mail order catalog business years ago, that if I had any clue just how much fraud was built into the system, in the credit card industry, that I'd probably cut them all up and throw them away. This was pre-9/11, and even then, a large amount of the fraudulent transactions were suspected to be tied to terrorist groups. Used to get bulletins all the time, from the FBI, to this effect.
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