Risk: Low
Over 4000 MasterCard and Visa holders have had their cards stopped after a security breach with a UK online retailer. Morgan Stanley and Clydesdale Bank customers have been affected; at first it was thought that 2000 cards had been compromised but it has more recently come to light that at least 4000 cardholders are affected.
MasterCard stated: "In order to protect cardholders, MasterCard and its card-issuing banks operate state-of-the-art, multilevel fraud monitoring systems. Together, we look for patterns of activity consistent with fraud. Issuers can then monitor their cardholders' accounts closely for fraudulent activity, and may reissue cards or take other actions if they suspect fraud has occurred." A spokesman for Visa Europe said: "Visa Europe can confirm that it is aware of a suspected data compromise involving a UK-based online merchant. A full investigation is continuing and Visa is working closely with all appropriate organisations to resolve this issue as a matter of urgency." The retailer responsible has not been named.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI) were created in June 2005 by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Diners, Discover and JCB to increase the security of websites, so it will be very interesting to see how this issue is dealt with.