Credit Cards Online Information

Bethpage Federal Credit Union is issuing 7,000 new debit and credit cards after the accounts were exposed to potential fraud due to a security breach at a third-party processor of payment card transactions in Arizona.

Only a relatively small number of Bethpage's 130,000 customers were impacted by the breach.

We have about 100,000 credit and debit cards issued, said Bethpage CEO Kirk Kordeleski. Bethpage was far from alone. The breach, made public last month, took place at CardSystems Solutions, a firm that processes transactions for merchants and banks. It's believed that up to 40 million MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards were exposed nationwide, when hackers gained access to the CardSystems database. But only a little more than 200,000 of the card numbers are known to have been stolen by the hackers.

We took the approach that we would prefer to be cautious, says Kordeleski. The cards being replaced were in that database. He added that none of the Bethpage members have reported suspicious activity on their accounts.

In a June 24 letter sent to its affected members, Bethpage warned customers to watch out for suspicious activity on their accounts. The note also said that replacement cards, along with a new personal identification number, would be mailed separately to their homes. Current cards would be deactivated on July 14. The reissuing of the cards will cost Bethpage $40,000 to $50,000, he added.

The CardSystems break-in affected many major banks, including Bank of America, which has information on its Web site about what a customer should do if they see suspicious activity on their accounts.

CardSystems is facing an inquiry from 44 attorneys general, who have given the company until July 25 to respond to their questions about how the hacker was able to steal information.

The stolen identities from CardSystems came after a package carrying the information of nearly 4 million Citigroup customers was lost in early June. That package, lost in transit to its Texas- based credit bureau, included Social Security numbers, names and account histories of customers. At that time, Citigroup said that they didn't have any reason to believe that the package had ended up in the wrong hands.

Back in February, Bank of America said it lost computer tapes that contained the information of 1.2 million federal employees. Bank of America and Wachovia Corp. in May reported that nearly 700,000 customers had account information stolen when bank employees illegally sold information to a man who masqueraded as a collection agency operator.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:51 AM