Major credit card company admits data breach, customer accounts compromised
Check your credit card. If it's from American Express, then you'll want to listen up. The company has recently admitted a data breach that it's been hiding for two years.
American Express explained in a letter to the California attorney general's office that it "became aware that a third-party service provider engaged by numerous merchants experienced unauthorized access to its system."
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Since originally filing this notification with the attorney general's office, the company has revised its statement, claiming that a "merchant," rather than a "third-party service" was actually the victim of the breach. But, it's important to note that in both statements, American Express affirmed that none of its owned systems had been tampered with.
Should you be concerned? Well, it's tough to say how large the breach was, and what actually happened. Thus far, American Express has remained tight-lipped about the number of card members who were affected. And, the company's story seems to change periodically, which causes some to speculate over a possible cover-up.
Regardless, this story just goes to show how vulnerable we all are to having our personal information stolen.
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