MasterCard and Visa are alerting banks nationwide about a security breach that occurred in January and February at a company that processes credit cards and debit cards for banks and merchants. The company, Global Payments Inc., says its processor was compromised between Jan. 21, 2012 and Feb. 25, 2012. According to the blog Krebs on Security, "Track 1 and Track 2 data was taken - meaning that the information could be used to counterfeit new cards." One thing the compromised cards have in common? NYC parking garages!
Sources at two different major financial institutions tell Krebs on Security "the transactions that most of the cards they analyzed seem to have in common are that they were used in parking garages in and around the New York City area." Fox News qualifies that Visa and MasterCard don't actually issue cards to consumers, but rather process transactions for banks that issue their cards. MasterCard issued a statement saying law enforcement has been notified and an "independent data security organization" is conducting a forensic review.
Visa also sent out a statement to banks announcing that the "network intrusion may have put accounts at risk of being stolen" and the U.S. Secret Service is involved in the investigation, which is "still in the early stages." So far, a total of 56,455 member Visa and MasterCard accounts were compromised. It's too soon to tell, but Visa says additional accounts may be at risk. Of course we're not sweating it, because we had the good sense to totally max out our credit cards before this happened.
