payments

Global Payments, a third-party payments processor at the center of a Visa and MasterCard security breach, reiterated Monday morning that while customer data may be at risk, the data breach has been "contained to the best of our ability."

Overall, 1.5 million accounts may have been affected.

Global Payments CEO Paul Garcia said that the "diligent work" may take some time, but it will complete the ongoing investigation and identify any changes that need to be implemented.

Garcia said the company will get its record of compliance back with Visa and MasterCard "as soon … Read more

As many as 1.5 million Visa and MasterCard accounts may have been compromised by the recent Global Payments security breach, the payment processor announced this evening.

Credit card numbers may have been exported, but no customer names, addresses, or Social Security numbers were accessed, the company said in a statement. The company believes the breach, which was revealed Friday, was confined to North America.

The nature of the breach, which was originally pegged at 50,000 accounts, has not been revealed. The company also did not say whether it knew of any fraudulent charges resulting from the breach on … Read more

Global Payments, the processor blamed for a Visa and MasterCard data breach last week, is likely to be able to manage its financial hit related to beefing up security.

Last week, Visa and MasterCard warned banks about a data breach. In addition, Global Payments issued a statement confirming the data breach. Global Payments said the company's security systems picked up the threat in March and contacted law enforcements. The company will hold a conference call Monday at 8 a.m. EDT.

It's unclear how many accounts were compromised, but 10 million is the largest reported number thus far. … Read more

When I was a kid growing up in Montreal, I spent more than a year filling a big brown bottle with pennies. When they reached the top and I poured them out, I was crushed that they totaled less than 20 bucks.

Ever since, I've had little love for the lowly Canadian cent -- it's 2.35 grams, mostly steel, and has been nothing but dead weight in my pockets. The government now feels the same and has announced that the Royal Canadian Mint will stop distributing pennies this fall.

"Pennies take up too much space on … Read more

Some 50,000 credit and debit cardholders may have their information exposed following a security breach at Global Payments, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The full extent of the breach is still unknown, the Journal reported today, and it's unclear whether fraudulent charges on cardholders have been racked up yet.

Global Payments later released a statement saying the breach didn't involve its merchants or their customers. The company said it had determined early this month that card data may have been accessed, and alerted law enforcement.

"It is reassuring that our security processes detected an intrusion,&… Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Square has delivered a few improvements (and a new name) to its mobile payment service.

The application formerly known as Card Case has been rebranded "Pay With Square," the company announced today. Square hasn't said why it changed its mobile app's name, but the branding appears to make it clearer to users what they should do with the app. Card Case was, after all, a cryptic name for a mobile-payment solution.

Pay With Square comes with the same features users found in Card Case, allowing them to pay for products at merchant stores that support Square … Read more

After an embarrassing snafu that left Google Wallet prepaid card users in a potentially worrisome situation, the search giant has reportedly given customers an extra $5 to bring them back.

According to The Verge, Google Prepaid Card customers recently had all their funds restored and received an additional $5 for all their trouble. The Verge says Google sent e-mails to Wallet customers updating them on the move, but the company has not publicly said that it has, in fact, given customers $5 for its mobile-payment service's recent issues.

Researchers last month discovered a way to hack Google Wallet and potentially steal a user's financial information. … Read more

Since PayPal launched its new payment service "PayPal Here" last week, it has raked in thousands of sign-ups. In fact, in the first 24 hours of its introduction, the online payment company says it was getting 1,000 sign-ups per hour.

"To say there's been some interest in our new offering would be an understatement," PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar said in a statement today. "Clearly there's a need for a secure, global solution that provides small businesses the flexibility to get paid anytime, anywhere, any way."

The idea of PayPal Here actually … Read more