News
Global Payments, Inc. Breach
Global Payments Inc., a payment processor, announced on Friday, March 30, 2012 that it identified unauthorized access into its processing system. The company believes the breach has impacted 1.5 MM cards. Global Payments processes billions of payment card, check and e-commerce transactions annually for more than 1 million global merchant locations worldwide. Based on the forensic analysis to date, networking monitoring and additional security measures, the company believes that the incident is contained. The company continues to work with regulators and law enforcement to assist in the efforts to minimize potential cardholder impact.
Global Payments has launched a new website dedicated to consumer updates about the breach: www.2012infosecurityupdate.com .
Consumers across the U.S. and potentially the world are going to have to be extra cautious in light of the Global Payments breach. The key is to be vigilant and aware.
We recommend that:
- Watch for any signs of trouble.
- Monitor your accounts regularly, checking for unauthorized transactions. A $1 charge could be an indication that a criminal has access to a person's account number and is testing to see if they notice the activity. If you spot any unknown purchases or transactions, call the bank or the credit card company immediately.
- Never provide sensitive information to unsolicited requests.
- Get a credit report – You are entitled to a free credit report once every 12 months.
- If you believe your account has been compromised, you can place a Fraud Alert on your credit report. To do this, you’ll need to contact one of the three credit bureaus listed below. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report:
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289 www.transunion.com
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 www.equifax.com
Experian: 1-888-397-3742 www.experian.com
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