CMG Advises CUs on Global Payments Data Breach Posted by AVCU on 11:26 AM

CUNA Mutual Group reports that the number of credit unions affected by the Global Payments data breaches could number into the hundreds, but the exact number or amount of fraudulent transactions is not yet known. So far, according to an advisory to credit unions this week, resulting fraud seen in individual credit unions ranges from zero to $100,000.

As of this past Wednesday, Visa and MasterCard were expanding the window during which the data breach occurred to as early as December 3rd through February 25th. Credit union fraud prevention practices such as system monitoring and daily limits are among the best in the financial services industry. But, the level of trust members have for credit unions makes them easy victims of social engineering scams, according to CUNA Mutual. United States institutions are among the last in the world to adopt more secure chip technology for debit and credit cards. Magnetic stripe technology is much more vulnerable to fraud. On Wednesday, CUNA Mutual issued a risk alert to its bondholders advising them to move toward chip technology. According to the risk alert, implementing chip technology (point-of-sale and ATM terminals) will significantly reduce magnetic stripe counterfeit fraud and improve the overall security of the U.S. payment infrastructure.