Global Payments Says Consumer Data May Have Been Stolen With Credit Card Numbers

Cyber thieves who stole more than 1.5 million credit card numbers may have also taken consumer data from the services of credit card processor Global Payments, according to a bulletin issued by the company.

All those affected should start monitoring their credit for any suspicious behavior, the company said, adding that unauthorized access via a subset of merchant applicants might have given hackers access to personal information data.

“It is unclear whether the intruders looked at or took any personal information from the company’s systems; however, the company will notify potentially-affected individuals in the coming days with helpful information and make available credit monitoring and identity protection insurance at no cost,” the statement said. “The notifications are unrelated to cardholder data and pertain to individuals associated with a subset of the company’s U.S. merchant applicants.“

Although the company believes the leak of over 1.5 million Visa and MasterCard accounts has been contained, no additional details have been given on the type of personal information that might have been compromised by using the stolen credit card data.

The account numbers and expiration dates contained in the magnetic stripe of credit cards are codenamed Track 2 data. As such, names, addresses and Social Security numbers were safe from the original breach unless they get associated with the possibly leaked personal information that Global Payments warns of.

Visa and MasterCard have revoking the company`s Payment Card Industry status and Global Payments is seeking assistance from an independent security assessor in a detailed revision of its systems.