MasterCard Investigating "Massive" Data Breach, Visa Affected Too

As you head into the weekend getting ready to party and celebrate the end of another long and grueling work week, take some time to keep tabs on your MasterCard and Visa accounts. If you don't, you could be in for a rude awakening when you go to pay for drinks and find out that your card has been declined.

At issue here is a what's being described as a "massive" data breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor, according to KrebsOnSecurity.com.Visa and MasterCard have both been sending out non-public alerts giving banks a heads up that specific cards -- possibly more than 10 million -- may have been compromised recently.


A spokesman for MasterCard told The Wall Street Journal that it's "own systems have not been compromised in any manner," but said it plans to keep an eye on things and is taking precautionary steps to "safeguard account information." Visa hasn't issued a public statement, but did send a notice to banks saying a "network intrusion may have put accounts at risk of being stolen," and that "the investigation is still in the early stages."

There have already been reports of some fraudulent activity related to the data breach. According to KrebsOnSecurity, PSCU, a provider of online financial services to credit unions, has alerted hundreds of credit unions that they may have been impacted by the breach, which appears to have affected more than 56,000 member Visa and MasterCard accounts.