Global Payments Affirms Its at the Center of Massive Visa/MasterCard Data Breach

Global Payments Inc. now confirms it is the source of the huge breach affecting cards carrying the major network brands.

The company issued the following statement late Friday afternoon:

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN), a leader in payment processing services, announced it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into a portion of its processing system. In early March 2012, the company determined card data may have been accessed. It immediately engaged external experts in information technology forensics and contacted federal law enforcement. The company promptly notified appropriate industry parties to allow them to minimize potential cardholder impact. The company is continuing its investigation into this matter.


"It is reassuring that our security processes detected an intrusion. It is crucial to understand that this incident does not involve our merchants or their relationships with their customers," said Chairman and CEO Paul R. Garcia.


Global Payments will hold a conference call Monday, April 2, 2012 at 8:00 AM EDT. Callers may access the conference call via the investor relations page of the Company's Web site at www.globalpaymentsinc.com by clicking the "Webcast" button; or callers in North America may dial 1-888-895-3550 and callers outside North America may dial 1-706-758-8809. The pass code is "GPN."

Global Payments Breach May Have Exposed up to 10 Million Cards in Massive Payment Data Breach

As previously reported on ePayment News, Security blogger Brian Krebs broke a story earlier today alerting readers that Visa and MasterCard are alerting banks about a massive data breach (Mr. Krebs reported up to 10 Million cardholder may be compromised) at what was then an unnamed third party U.S. processor.  

First thought that came to mind was Heartland Payment Systems, not because I believed it was them, but they were involved in the last massive security breach.  Since I don't believe that lightning would strike twice, I started thinking whom this 3rd party processor might be.  First Data? Bain Capital's WorldPay? (formerly RBS) Global Payments?  Bingo!

ePayment News has learned that the culprit in this massive security breach is in fact, Atlanta based Global Payments, who have yet to make an official statement from their headquarters.

Mr. Krebs has stated that Global Payments is expected to issue a statement today.

Stay tuned...

Welcome to the High Stakes World of Mobile Payments (Infographic)

Infographic courtesy of our friends at MobilePaymentsToday.com

When we created our immensely popular and wildly informative infographic last year explaining just what a mobile payment is, we were gratified that so many people found it useful.

Now we're being asked about all of the companies that seem to be jumping into the mobile payment game. It's a good question. Almost every day a new player enters the market.

And why is that? Because so much is at stake. The expectation is that a large percentage of the $6.2 trillion in credit card transactions is going to migrate to mobile. (And that doesn't even include other transaction types that could be supplanted by mobile payments.)

So we thought we'd try to shed some light on the companies that are entering the market and how they're placing their bets. And what better way to do that than with another infographic. Our shiny, new infographic shows the game, the stakes, the players and their wagers.

We'll be honest: it's hard to keep all the players and their bets straight. So if you see a company we missed, or think we need to move our chips to another bet, let us know in the comments below.

Click on the big poker chips in the infographic to learn more about the companies in each category. Use the embed code below the infographic to publish it on your website or blog.

The high stakes world of mobile payments [Infographic]  Compliments of MobilePaymentsToday.com

Global Payments Identified as Source of Massive Security Breach According to WSJ

Update: Global Payments Inc., GPN -9.06%  has been identified by WSJ as the U.S. Processor hit by a massive security breach...and trading of their shares has been halted according to Reuters...

March 30 (Reuters) - MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc have notified U.S. banks of a potential security breach, the latest in a string of incidents that have put the personal information of millions of credit card holders at risk.

The companies, which are the two largest global credit card processors, said the issue stemmed from a third-party vendor and not their own internal systems.

Following news of the breach, the shares of Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc were halted after dropping more than 9.1 percent.

Several other processing companies, including Heartland Payment Systems Inc, VeriFone Systems Inc and First Data denied responsibility for the potential breach. Card Systems Inc and WorldPay did not immediately respond to inquiries about the matter.  read more

A Nickel for Your Thoughts? Canada Eliminates the Penny...

Canada to eliminate the penny


In Economic Action Plan 2012, the Government of Canada has announced that it will modernize Canada's currency set by eliminating the penny from Canada's coinage system... read more

Another Massive Processor Breach - 10 Million Cards May be Compromised

1. MasterCard, VISA Warn of Processor Breach

   VISA and MasterCard are alerting banks across the country about a recent major breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor. Sources in the financial sector are calling the breach “massive,” and say it may involve more than 10 million compromised card numbers.

   

   Reports are surfacing that credit card issuers Visa and MasterCard are warning banks of a massive breach at an undisclosed payments processor.

   According to Brian Krebs, the breach occurred sometime between between Jan. 21, 2012 and Feb. 25, 2012 and may involve somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million compromised card numbers.

   Krebs reports that Visa issued the following statement in response to his initial coverage of the breaking news story"

   "Visa Inc. is aware of a potential data compromise incident at a third party entity affecting card account information from all major card brands. There has been no breach of Visa systems, including its core processing network VisaNet."

   "Visa has provided payment card issuers with the affected account numbers so they can take steps to protect consumers through independent fraud monitoring and, if needed, reissuing cards."

   "It’s important for U.S. Visa consumer cardholders to know they are protected against fraudulent purchases with Visa’s zero liability fraud protection policy, which exceeds federal safeguards. As always, Visa encourages cardholders to regularly monitor their accounts and to notify their issuing financial institution promptly of any unusual activity. Additional consumer security tips are available at www.VisaSecuritySense.com."

   "Every business that handles payment card information is expected to protect the security and privacy of their customers’ financial information by adhering to the highest data protection standards. Visa also supports advanced security layers such as encryption, tokenization and dynamic authentication through EMV chip technology to further protect sensitive account information and minimize the impact of data compromises."

   Source:  http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/03/mastercard-visa-warn-of-processor-breach/
   
   
   

   1. MasterCard and VISA Warning Banks of Massive Processor Breach ‎ WebProNews - 1 hour ago The breach is said to be 'massive' with as many as 10 million card numbers possibly ... and there is no word yet on which card processor was compromised. by Sean Patterson · More by Sean Patterson Blog: Visa, MasterCard warn of 'massive' security breach‎ ZDNet (blog) Millions Of Mastercard And Visa Cards Reported Compromised In ...‎ Forbes Massive security breach leaves cardholders vulnerable‎ CNET TIME - Hot Hardware all 287 news articles »

      ZDNet (blog)

   2. Visa, MasterCard confirm credit card security breach ‎ ZDNet (blog) - 16 minutes ago ... banks of a major potential breach at a US-based credit card processor(see Visa, MasterCard warn of 'massive' security breach and Analysts on Visa, ... by Emil Protalinski · More by Emil Protalinski

      ZDNet (blog)

   3. Visa, MasterCard scramble after massive data breach ‎ Nanaimo Daily News - 10 minutes ago ... were scrambling on Friday to thwart cyber crooks who looted a massivetrove of precious account data, evidently from a payment processor in New York.

      Nanaimo Daily News

   4. MasterCard, Visa Warn Banks Of Breach; Global Payments Hit ‎ Investor's Business Daily - 12 minutes ago ... INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 12:45 PM ET Credit cardprocessors Visa ... MasterCard (MA) are warning banks of a potentialmassive security breach ...

   5. MasterCard Warns of Possible Data Breach ‎ MyFox Philadelphia - 2 hours ago ... it is investigating a potential breach at a US-based credit cardprocessor. ... said financial sector sources "are calling the breach'massive' and say ...

      MyFox Philadelphia

   6. MasterCard tells banks of possible security breach ‎ CNBC.com - 1 hour ago The credit-card processor said the issue involves a company based in the US and is ... a "massive" breach that may affect more than 10 million cardholders.

   7. MasterCard Admits to Massive Theft of User Credit Card Data ‎ KSEE - 9 minutes ago The name of that institution is unknown, but processors have long been a target ... folks in the card business who are seeing signs of this breachmushroom.