RBS WorldPay staves off hackers

RBS WorldPay, the U.S. payment processing division of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, indicated its computer system was "improperly accessed by an unauthorized party" who compromised personal information associated with prepaid payroll and open loop gift cards.

The personal information of approximately 1.5 million cardholders may have been affected; of this group, 1.1 million "may have had their Social Security numbers improperly accessed as well," according to an RBS press release. However, only 100 cards had been fraudulently used before RBS realized its system had been hacked on Nov. 10, 2008.

Remedial action

RBS notified law enforcement and federal regulators shortly thereafter and immediately took steps to mitigate risks of further thefts. RBS WorldPay's internal security staff and outside security experts are investigating the situation with federal and state authorities.

"Privacy is important to RBS WorldPay, and we regret any inconvenience this may cause affected individuals," said Ben Barone, President and Chief Executive Officer of RBS WorldPay. "We have taken important and immediate steps to mitigate risk, and none of the affected cardholders will be responsible for unauthorized activity on their account resulting from this situation.

"We are working closely with leading computer security firms to further safeguard our system and with law enforcement agencies to assist them in seeing these criminals brought to justice." PIN numbers for all PIN-enabled cards have been reset and assistance information for affected individuals is posted on RBS WorldPay's Web site, www.rbsworldpay.us .

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