George S. May Business Blog

WHAT?! Another credit card security breach!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blurb on the millions of credit card numbers that were compromised due to a security breach on Heartland Payment. As a reminder, the account processing clearinghouse had its networks accessed by hackers several months before anyone even took notice. Well, here we go again:

Visa and MasterCard while admitting there has been a breach of security, both refuse to admit exactly card numbers have been compromised or even how the breach occurred.

In fact, neither of the companies even came forward about the information leak until a blogger by the name of Steve Ragan broke the story.   Apparently, Ragan mentioned that a large number of card numbers had been compromised and then, four days later Visa confirmed.

Unfortunately, there is not much more to the story at this point. So Visa and MasterCard holders, essentially, will have to wait to be contacted by their provider.

I do want to make a quick point however. Is it not a bit odd that hackers had an easier time getting credit card information from the payment processors than Visa and MasterCard’s customers have getting information about the breaches. Why should the people whose assets at risk have to endure the uncertainty associated with not knowing if their card details. Seems a bit backward to me.

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