The two biggest credit card firms, Visa and MasterCard, are reportedly the victims of a huge data breach. KrebsonSecurity.com reports that the breach happened at a US-based processor for the two companies and may involve as many as 10 million credit card numbers being exposed.
The story says that the breach happened sometime between January 21st and February 25th but Visa and MasterCard only started alerting banks to the breach in a non-public alert last week. The amount of information that was taken as a result of this incident is said to be enough for others to make counterfeit credit cards.
The story does not name the processor that was the subject of the credit card data leak. However, it adds that according to two unnamed financial organizations, the transactions made by the affected cards seems to show that they were used in New York City in parking garages.
While Visa has not yet issued an official statement, The Wall Street Journal reports that MasterCard has admitted that a "possible" breach has occurred and is working with law enforcement groups and an independent security firm to investigate the matter. It added that "MasterCard"s own systems have not been compromised in any manner", but would not comment on how many cards might be affected.