The nation's credit-card holders do not have to worry about their account information have been leaked in the latest security breach in the US, as the US card processing company responsible for this extensive data theft does not deal with card transactions in Taiwan, international card giants said yesterday.
"The data bank invaded [by computer hackers] does not belong to MasterCard International, but to the Tucson, Arizona-based company CardSystems Solutions Inc, which is contracted by US banks, member institutions and merchants to deal with card transactions," said a Chinese-language statement issued by MasterCard's local branch yesterday.
CardSystems' customers include 105,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises in the US, the statement said.
"We've notified our member banks around the world to detect suspicious card transactions. As long as questionable account information is found, card issuers will follow standard procedures to block the card numbers and give new numbers to affected card users," Julie Yang (楊雅婷), MasterCard's sales and business senior director, said by telephone.
She said that the data leaked this time only involves information offered on traditional magnetic-strip cards, including names, account numbers and expiry dates. Personal confidential data, such as birthdays, social-security numbers and addresses remain intact.
If any card fraud occurs, banks will take full responsibility as stated in the contracts with consumers, the organization said.
CardSystems acknowledged Sunday that the company should not have retained those records, the New York Times reported, citing John Perry, chief executive of CardSystems.
Under rules established by Visa and MasterCard, processors are not allowed to retain cardholder information including names, account numbers, expiration dates and security codes after a transaction is handled, the paper said.
This financial data breach affects about 20 million Visa holders, 14 million MasterCard holders, and 6 million holders of American Express and other card brands.
Among the 40 million compromised accounts, "the Visa-branded cards issued in Taiwan are not many, and so far no Taiwanese Visa cards have been fraudulently used," said Christopher Clark, Visa International's country manager in Taiwan.
"Taiwanese consumers can be relieved," Clark said.
But to protect cardholders' rights and interests, he said member banks will take the initiative to contact the affected card users and re-issue credit cards with new account numbers.
"This incident once again proves the importance of using the more secure integrated-circuit [IC] cards," he said, which both Visa and MasterCard are striving to introduce to reduce card frauds.
This large-scale data theft also caught the attention of the authorities. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has asked the local branches of the international credit-card companies to report on the possible impact on the nation's credit-card users.
Yang said MasterCard has made clarifications with officials on the phone yesterday, and will deliver written reports giving details.
Clark said Visa had updated its information with the commission yesterday and will keep close contacts with the company's Singapore-based Asia Pacific regional office to obtain the latest details.
American Express Bank Ltd said it has not received any notification from the FSC, but said that the breach has had no impact on the Taiwanese market, according to the bank's public affairs manager, Tiffany Chen (
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