40 million credit card got hacked
Date: June 22, 2005Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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In what could be the largest ever network security breach, it is believed that information on as many as 40 million credit cards may have been stolen.
MasterCard International has notified banks about the successful hacker attack at CardSystems Solutions, a Tucson, Arizona card payment processing company. Information on 13.9 million MasterCard, 20 million Visa and various other credit cards was compromised. The banks are responsible for notifying their affected customers.
A spokesperson for MasterCard has said that affected card holders should dispute any transactions that were not made by them; they will not be held liable for any such fraudulent transactions. The FBI is investigating.
Security experts are now warning that this widely reported theft may result in a new wave of Phishing scams, seeking to exploit the fear and uncertainty that the theft has caused. Previous Phishing scam emails have appeared to come from the card holder's bank and ask the unwary to confirm their credit card details - but in fact they divulge confidential information to a fraudster. The new malicious URL detection features in SmoothGuardian 4.0 can prevent people from falling victim to such identity thefts, by detecting the spoof URLs used in these emails that direct victims to bogus websites.
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