Visa and Mastercard at centre of alleged data breach

published 18 June 2012

A computer hacker has leaked a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers it claims belong to Visa and Mastercard customers.

In a series of posts on the social networking site Twitter, the hacker who goes by the name of Reckz0r - claims to have infiltrated both companies' systems and acquired their data.

"Guess what folks? Mastercard and Visa are pwned," the hacker wrote. "Don't believe me? Keep your patience, I'll provide a lovely demo for you soon."

The hacker then told followers to expect a "data dump" of the acquired information yesterday.

Since then, Reckz0r has posted a link to a file on the text sharing website Pastebin, which contains contact details of several hundred people from the United States, Australia and the UK.

"I just leaked a half data of Visa and Mastercard, the full one is about 50GB or bigger," the hacker added.

In a statement to IT Pro, Mastercard declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the data, adding that it doesn't comment on "rumours, threats or speculation."

Meanwhile, in a further statement to IT Pro, Visa confirmed that it was investigating the breach.

"Visa Europe takes data compromise very seriously," said the company. "Working closely with partners, including law enforcement, we are investigating this allegation."

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.

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