Mastercard, Visa May Have Been Hit By Massive Account Holder Breach

MasterCard announced on Friday that the company may have experienced a massive customer data breach via one of its third party vendors.

The Purchase, N.Y. credit-card company revealed that law enforcement agents are currently investigating the case alongside an “independent data security organization.

A company spokesman also noted:

“MasterCard’s own systems have not been compromised in any manner,” however the company will “continue to both monitor this event and take steps to safeguard account information.”

Mastercard officials in the meantime are not revealing how many accounts may have been affected or if banks have been notified of the breach.

Visa also sent out a message to banks on Friday to notify them of a potential security breach by a third-party processor. According to that letter the breach occurred between Jan. 21 and Feb. 25.

In its notice Visa told bank representatives:

“The network intrusion may have put accounts at risk of being stolen.”

Visa goes on to note that a forensic team is looking into the breach while noting that the U.S. Secret Service has also gotten involved in the case. According to Visa:

“The investigation is still in the early stages and if additional accounts are determined to be at risk” more notifications will be served.

According to PSCU the recent Visa alert identified 46,194 accounts that may have been at risk, however after eliminated duplicate accounts and cards that have expired that number appears to have fallen to 26,094.

PSCU in the meantime is not sure where the breach occurred, revealing:

“To date, the common point of compromise has not been identified.”

Because Visa and Mastercard do not actually issue credit cards to consumers a large part of the breach will be up to the third party credit card processor to discover.