Today Visa and MasterCard have reported a massive breach in their cardholder accounts. Not only has the breach leaked information pertaining to existing accounts, but it has leaked information that may allow the manufacture of new, fraudulent credit accounts.
We all know to be vigilant when it comes to our credit information, and so hopefully that means most of us will notice fraudulent charges and deal with them accordingly. However, with a breach on such a large scale it is better to be caller number 1 rather than caller 9 million. Visa and MasterCard have expressed to anyone who feels that they have been a victim of the breach to call the institution that has issued the card not Visa and MasterCard directly.
We all know to be vigilant when it comes to our credit information, and so hopefully that means most of us will notice fraudulent charges and deal with them accordingly. However, with a breach on such a large scale it is better to be caller number 1 rather than caller 9 million. Visa and MasterCard have expressed to anyone who feels that they have been a victim of the breach to call the institution that has issued the card not Visa and MasterCard directly.
For larger credit issuers this should not be a problem to deal with a large number of calls. We should worry about the smaller institutions that will not be able to handle the amount of panic that is sure to start sweeping the cardholder nation.
Remain calm, and carry on comes to mind in this situation. Be vigilant. Monitor your credit and we should all be able to get though this mess unscathed.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/story/2012-03-30/mastercard-security-breach/53887854/1
http://moneyland.time.com/2012/03/30/visa-mastercard-suffered-massive-data-breach/
