Credit Cards Giants Warn Of New Security Breach / image via DailyTech.com

Financial sources in New York reported over the weekend that Visa, MasterCard and Discover have issued warnings that an apparent security breach may have compromised the personal information of their millions of clients worldwide.

Security expert KrebsOnSecurity, which first reported the breach, told BBC that about 10 million card holders’ personal information may be at risk after WSJ sources found card-processing firm Global Payments to have suffered the breach late Saturday.

The Wall Street Journal said its own industry sources point to Global Payments as having been the company hit by the credit card data thieves.

Global Payments has not commented on the reported problem, but Wall Street observers said the company’s shares fell by some 9% immediately following media accounts of the breach.

Reacting to the industry report on the possible Global Payments security incident, MasterCard, Visa and Discover assured clients that their own systems are still uncompromising.

However, the credit card firms said they have already notified participating banks of the possible problem, while Discover Financial Services said it was ready to reissue cards if necessary.

While none of the three major card credit and debit companies confirmed how many of their customers might have suffered from the reported breach, all said they were closely monitoring events, suggesting that clients worried about their accounts should immediately get in touch with their issuing banks.

The three further assured clients worldwide that the companies do not believe that their customers were responsible for any fraudulent purchases.

The security company’s earlier disclosure of the breach indicated that the current problem might have started in New York.

Source: WSJ | BBC

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