St. Petersburg Times
Florida's Best Newspaper
GQ tampabay.com es Thursday, Jane 1, 2008
Breach
exposes
Suncoast
accounts
The credit unionhas
warned about 56,000
debit card holders.
By mcous NoRRET
‘ines taf Wrier
About 56,000 members of
‘Suncoast Schcols Federal Credit
Union have been notified that
their debit card accounts were
exposed to fraud.
Tis the latest casualty of last
year’s breach of Heartland Pay-
meat Systems one of the conn-
‘ry$ largest creditcard proces-
sors, where information from
‘more than 100 million eredit
and debit card transactions was
exposed.
‘Not until the end of May did
‘Suncoast discover that some
of is customers who wie Visa
‘Cheek Cards could bein danger.
‘TheTampa credit union is isos
ing new cards to all members
whose accounte were compro
mised.
“T: was nota Suncoast exela-
sive event nor was it through
‘any fault of our own” said Metra
‘Mekay-Bass, senior vice pres-
ident of member service opet=
ations for Suncoast. “It was
‘hot anything that we had done
wrong”
‘Suncoast, which has more than
450,000 members, has deter-FRAUD
‘continued from1A,
Breach
exposes
Suncoast
accounts
Doers were actualy affected by
fan as or Wednesday, McKay.
Bas sid.
‘Only encrypted card aata
sr comontin nt pened
addresses and Social Security
‘nunbers Thecreditusion wean
notifying affected members by
Jeter in the frst week of Jane,
Metayres sia
‘Suncoast elssed sate
epet thi, Mekay-ass ‘ad,
nicked some o ts member.
“it_you hear on the news
‘that there has been breach
for harsh words such as breach
oF Internal seearity situation,
25 a customer of tat Manca
instiution T would all to see
if my account sie 0 that
{5 excly what has happened.
And thi fe exety whet we
‘wanted to wvoid she wid.
‘Vist hasa ero ably fraud
poli that allows peeple who
eport fraud to recoup thelr
‘mong. Afeted members went
experience any iateruptons of
Servie, bu thers willbe some
time overiap between when
‘embers receive new cards and
\whentheolfonesare canceled
“Atno time do we want them
to be mithoat he plas 0 ne
want o make sure that he new
ards in hand before the od
‘ard canceled” Mekay-Bss
kw st Peterburg Tees | Thursday, June 2000 | 7A
‘Ties the rst ime Suncosst
as relsued this many ears,
‘nd itis unvalisteto say that
‘iswabe teat she sad
Tis 30 ura forthe fects
ot seearty beaches wo a se
tral years, sald vival Lita,
Security’ analyst for Gartner
esearch
Tn 1007, TIX Cos. oper-
tor of £1 Max and Miah,
‘nounced sured asecurty,
lntruson that spanned sever
ears and expose as many 1s
‘Pomition scours
"There hasbeen recent tread
‘thactrs infteatingpaomest
‘ocesor tan sid
"When a card is used, the
‘harge goes to a payment pro-
‘esser and then tothe bank fr
{pprowal: Hackers se the da,
to male countertelt cards and
‘ake purcases se sd
“The banks get very upset
shout hia Bente they have 0
‘sorb the costs, so sometimes
[es easier tout shut dev the
Scout and reissue the cards”
Tian suid
Tis eomamon fr credit unions
to reissue cards because they
‘ten ek tbe inastrucre 0
eal with heavy phone tafe
from concerned members ae
1» moritor avis account, te
22
Concerts rowing n>
srom cata teaching ep,
Sieur sr oro
npater Scr nse
“Shor starting to get used
corsage
wo tiekinterinag! act
“ihe amount of servnsnes
otagssaeateoneis
Scerataen tes oa
igo ine”
Sst encuaing is
emer tonite ma
‘Sri assent ta
{he rt non tee any
Sua