Two major credit card companies are
reporting a massive security breach. It happened at one of the largest
electronic processing companies in the country, Global Payments.
If your credit or debit card company is Visa
or MasterCard, your money could be in jeopardy. Security blogger Brian
Krebs was the first to report the breach. He has sources in the
financial sector who are calling it "massive."
Visa and MasterCard say the data was stolen
between the end of January and late February. The Iowa Attorney
General's office says you should take extra precautions to find out if
your information was compromised.
Read your credit card statements to see if
anything is out of the ordinary. Red flags should be raised if you
didn't get a bill, you were denied credit and your score is good and if
you got a call from a debt collector but you've paid your bills.
"This could be a very widespread breech but
we don't know what they're going to do with that data that they've
taken," said Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for the Attorney General's
Office. "Your number may be up, your number may not be up, but it is of
concern that your number could have been breached."
The processing company, Global Payments,
found out about the breach in early March and they're continuing to
investigate. If you think your information was stolen, cancel your card
immediately, and file a police report.