Global Payments, a company that processes credit cards for Visa and MasterCard, announced Friday that an unauthorized intrusion into their servers may have comprised more than a million card numbers.                           

Dr. Mahadevan Gomathisankaran, an assistant professor in the University of North Texas' Department of Computer Science, says that the breach may be more serious than initially thought.

"The breach is serious as the attackers have access to both Track 1 and Track 2 data, meaning they could use the stolen information to counterfeit new cards," said Gomathisankaran. "Once the forensics is complete MasterCard and Visa may take appropriate action to prevent fraudulent use of these stolen credit cards."

In the meantime Gomathisankaran says there are several things that consumers can do to protect themselves, if they are concerned their card may be comprised:

1.    Watch the credit card statements regularly and report any suspicious account activity.

2.    Inform the issuing banks if you are going on a long vacation or visiting some place other than your normal routine.

3.    Set-up alerts (email, text, etc) to monitor usage of your card.

4.    Use virtual cards for online transactions.

5.    Keep credit card activity to a minimum.

Gomathisankaran worked at Philips Software Center and Texas Instruments Bangalore and the Intel Systems Research Center Bangalore before joining the UNT faculty.

He can be reached at 609-851-0108 for further comments on credit card safety.