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40 million credit card accounts hacked into
Security breach is biggest yet, affects mostly U.S. cardholders

Canadian Press
Monday, June 20, 2005

TORONTO -- Canadian credit card companies are telling card holders and financial institutions to keep a close eye on all financial transactions following the security breach in the U.S. that could affect up to 240,000 Canadian Visa card holders alone.

"We are still trying to determine the cards that have the potential of being compromised," said Mei Velasquez, a public relations manager for Visa Canada.

"But if anyone sees anything unusual, they should contact their financial institution immediately," she said.

MasterCard International Inc. announced Friday that the banks and account numbers of as many as 40 million credit card holders may have been accessed by an unauthorized user.

The security breach was traced to Atlanta-based CardSystems Solutions Inc., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants.

The incident appears to be the largest yet involving financial data in a series of security breaches affecting consumer data at major financial institutions and data brokers.

Velasquez said Visa Canada and its financial institutions are closely monitoring accounts possibly affected by the scandal to ensure further fraudulent activity doesn't occur.

A spokesperson for MasterCard Canada said the majority of the nearly 14 million MasterCard card users affected by the scandal are American.

"Ninety per cent are U.S.-based card holders and the other 10 per cent are internationally based, but I do not have the specific figure for Canada," said Jennifer Reed, vice president of public affairs for MasterCard Canada.

MasterCard International Inc. has said only 68,000 of its affected card holders are at high risk of fraud and none are at a threat of identity fraud because U.S. Social Security numbers and birth information were not accessed.

Visa and MasterCard security teams are working closely with law enforcement, including the FBI, on this world-wide investigation.

Under U.S. federal law, credit card holders are liable for no more than $50 of unauthorized charges.

MasterCard and Visa both said affected Canadian customers will not face any financial losses as result of the security breach because both have zero-liability policies when dealing with credit card fraud.

The companies would not discuss potential financial losses they could face, saying it's more important to focus on consumers.

Both companies encouraged their card holders to continue using their cards.