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The network is breached at a firm that handles
merchant transactions. Nearly 70,000 bogus charges
are seen. Credit scores may be at risk.
June 18, 2005
In the largest reported security breach of
personal financial information, hackers
infiltrated the computers at a Tucson credit card
processing center and stole as many as 40 million
card numbers, it was disclosed Friday.
MasterCard International said card numbers and
expiration dates were harvested by a rogue program
planted inside the computer network at CardSystems
Inc., one of the firms that process merchant
requests for credit card authorization. When a
retailer swipes a customer's card, the information
goes to companies such as CardSystems for approval
before getting passed along to banks.
At least 68,000 accounts have had fraudulent
charges posted to them, said MasterCard Vice
President Linda Locke. Most credit card companies
reverse bogus charges that are reported to them.
Social Security numbers and other personal
information were not taken.
The attack exposed the numbers of 13.9 million
MasterCards and an unknown number of other brands
of cards. Atlanta-based CardSystems processes $15
billion in charges annually for MasterCard, Visa
USA, American Express, Discover and other cards.
Visa did not return a call seeking comment.
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