Credit card info leakage risk low in HK (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-07-04 19:12 About 12,000 local
cardholders may be affected by the US credit card data leakage, but the risk of
similar incidents in Hong Kong is low, Monetary Authority Deputy Chief Executive
Raymond Li said here Monday.
Li told the Legislative Council Financial Affairs Panel there are suspected
unauthorized transactions involving 134 credit cards, totaling 740,000 HK
dollars (94,872 US dollars).
He said CardSystems reportedly breached security standards as it stored
cardholders' information after providing authorization and validation processes
on behalf of merchants. Local cardholdersmay be affected if they purchase at US
retail outlets either at the point-of-sale or online.
In view of the incident, local authorized institutions have contacted most of
the potentially affected cardholders for card replacement. For those who cannot
be reached, transactions conducted through their cards are monitored closely.
Meanwhile, the authority has issued comprehensive guidance to authorized
institutions and its specialists will conduct IT on- site examinations.
The authority has also required parties involved to reassess the adequacy and
effectiveness of controls over customer data security.
Li said card issuers will bear the full loss incurred when faults
have occurred in the terminals or other systems used which cause cardholders
to suffer direct loss, and when transactions aremade through the use of
counterfeit cards.
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