(Crain's) ? Discover Financial Services is among the credit card-payment processors hit by a data-security breach when Global Payments Inc. had its systems breached.
The Riverwoods-based financial company, along with MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and American Express Co., were affected by unauthorized access to Global Payments' data. Global Payments is a third-party services provider. The breach also affected banks that issue debit and credit cards.
It was not immediately clear how many cardholders are victims of the breach.
Global Payments said it had detected a breach of card data in early March. Breaches of card data can lead to identity theft and unauthorized charges.
U.S. law enforcement authorities including the Secret Service are investigating and MasterCard said it has hired an independent data-security organization to review the incident.
Credit card companies generally protect customers against fraudulent transactions, and Visa said specifically Friday that its U.S. customers were not at risk. Both Visa and MasterCard said their own systems had not been compromised.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, as well as American Express and Discover, which issue their own cards, said they are monitoring customers' accounts and would issue new cards to anyone whose information may have been compromised.
Analysts said any financial losses from the data breach would be shouldered by merchants, card issuers and Global Payments rather than Visa or Mastercard, which operate payment networks.
Citigroup Inc said it has been notified by processors of the breach. Bank of America Corp declined to comment on the matter and Wells Fargo & Co said it was too early to comment on the impact.
Banks and processors emphasized customers would not be held liable for any fraudulent charges that may occur.
Last June, hackers stole information for 360,000 credit card accounts at Citigroup. In the past year, there have been high-profile data attacks against the International Monetary Fund, National Public Radio, Google and Sony's PlayStation Network.
(The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.)
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