Financial Recovery Sought For Latest CardBreach

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - (06/23/05) -- Credit union officials are upsetover last week's news of a massive theft of credit card data andare urging efforts to recover losses and potential losses caused bythe latest security breach. John Annaloro, president of theWashington CU League, sharply criticized executives of Visa andMasterCard Wednesday in a letter to the two card associations fordelaying information about the security breach for weeks, withoutinforming their credit union and bank customers. In many case,credit unions learned of the problems through calls from members orfrom local press reports, Annaloro said. He asked CUNA Mutual Groupto lead the way in seeking recovery for any losses, as the creditunion insurer did in last year's incident at BJ's Wholesale Club,where a legal action for recovery has been initiated. Meantime,credit unions on the west coast are already reporting that some oftheir accounts may be included in those Visa, MasterCard, Discoverand American Express accounts breached from Card Systems Solutions.Oregon Community CU said Wednesday that as many as 7,000 of its90,000 accounts have been exposed to potential theft and isrecalling the cards.

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