Payment processor Global Payments has been the victim of a cyber breach that could expose up to 1.5 million credit card numbers. Global Payments provides service for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards. Visa has now dropped Global Payments from its list of approved service providers.
Names, addresses and social security numbers were not compromised. It is also believed that the processing system breach is confined to North America.
The Track 2 data that was stolen in the breach can be used to transfer account numbers and expiration dates of valid cards to the magnetic stripes on phony cards. The phony cards can then be used to make purchases online. However, such purchase attempts would be unsuccessful if the online vendor required the CVV code located on the back of the original credit cards.
Global Payments expects to be reinstated as a Visa provider once they have issued a new report of compliance. Its estimated revenue for the 2012 financial year is about $2.15 billion.
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