Lawmakers Scrutinize Credit Card Breaches

Major credit card companies and CardSystems were called to Capitol Hillon Thursday to testify about the country’s largest data breach thatexposed roughly 40 million cardholders to fraud. The New York Timesreports that many much of the finger-pointing was directed at Cable& Wireless Americas, the defunct security auditor that reportedthat CardSystems was compliant with industry rules, and the FBI, whichdid not immediately respond when told of the breach. Neither group waspresent at the hearing. The hearing, overseen by the House FinancialServices Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, focused on theactions of CardSystems’ auditors as they asked Visa to reconsider itsdecision to stop the company from handling transactions. Visa wouldagree to nothing more than talks until CardSystems was morecooperative. Members of the subcommittee were also very interested inhow CardSystems security was breached. Read more.