Over 5 million Visa/MasterCard accounts hacked into

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/02/17/rtr881826.html

Reuters
02.17.03

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than five million Visa and MasterCard
accounts throughout the nation were accessed after the computer system
at a third party processor was hacked into, according to
representatives for the card associations.

Early indications were that none of the information, which would
include credit card numbers, was used in a fraudulent way, according
to the representatives.

The associations said they could not provide a timeline of when the
breach took place or details on how it was accomplished because it
involved a third party processor used by merchants and not Visa or
MasterCard systems. The associations said they could not disclose the
name of that processor.

Visa and MasterCard are associations made up of financial institutions
who issue the cards.

MasterCard said it began to notify its members the week of Feb. 3 that
more than 2 million MasterCard accounts had been broken into after the
processor told it about the problem, MasterCard spokeswoman Sharon
Gamsin told Reuters.

About 3.4 million Visa accounts also have been accessed in the
incident, according to spokesman John Abrams.

"Visa's fraud team immediately notified all affected card issuing
financial institutions and is working with the third-party payment
card processor to protect against the threat of a future intrusion,"  
the association said in a statement.

Neither Visa nor MasterCard would disclose which institution were
involved.

"This is not something regional, it was throughout the nation and
could be any bank," Abrams said.

Both associations said no customer would be liable for any charges
incurred as a result of fraud. They said the processor was working
with law enforcement officials on the matter.



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