Originally published July 3 2005
Credit card information from more than 40 million cardholders compromised
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A security breach of customer information at credit card transaction company CardSystems Solutions Inc. could expose up to 40 million cardholders to fraud, claimed a MasterCard spokesmen.
A security breach of customer information at a credit card transaction 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., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants.
It was the latest in a series of security breaches affecting valuable consumer data at major financial institutions and data brokers in an increasingly database-driven world.
Full Image The breach appears to be the largest yet 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.
Reached on his cell phone, CardSystems' chief financial officer, Michael A. Brady, said: "We were absolutely blindsided by a press release by the association."
He refused to answer any questions and referred calls to the company's chief executive, John M. Perry, and its senior vice president of marketing, Bill N. Reeves.
A message left for Perry and Reeves at the company's Atlanta offices was not immediately returned.
CardSystems processes less than 0.5 percent of American Express' domestic transactions, said company spokeswoman Judy Tenzer.
ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS) 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.
"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.
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