Romanian bank blocks 17,000 cards in security scare

Possible database security breach at payments processor.

A Romanian bank has blocked 17,000 cards after Visa and the Romanian Banks Association reportedly discovered a possible database security breach at a European payments processor.

Romania Business reported CEC Bank has blocked the cards after Visa received notification of the possible breach.

The Romanian Banks Association revealed the threat on Wednesday, which may have affected several banks and led to information leakage on transactional data.

Catalin Cretu, general manager of Visa Europe for Romania, was quoted as saying that it was working with banks to make sure cardholders are protected. He advised cardholders to pay attention to their accounts and report any suspect or unusual activity.

CEC assured customers that it was doing its best to mitigate the situation but said the attack did not target CEC Bank's cards specifically and was not due to any vulnerability within the bank. 

“The bank has been informed that a number of cards issued by banks in Romania and abroad have been potentially compromised through an international database," the bank said in a statement.

"CEC Bank has decided to block the cards and reissue a new card and PIN, at no cost, for a number of cards in its portfolio.”

So far, it is the only bank in Romania to have declared itself a victim of the breach.

The Heartland Payment Systems breach in January 2009 led to the compromise of 130 million credit cards after intruders broke into the systems and planted malicious software to steal card data carried on the company's networks.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com