Up to 1.5M credit card numbers stolen from Global Payments

On Friday, we heard the news that payments processor Global Payments was hit with a massive security breach involving MasterCard and Visa cardholders. At the time it was unclear the reach of the security issue, which was being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. Tonight, Global Payments reports that those cards affected in the breach processing system were confined to North America and up to 1.5 million card numbers may have been exported. Visa had originally pegged that number at around 50,000 cards stolen.

The company said it believes the incident has been contained and it is working with third parties to investigate the incident and minimize impact on customers, although it did not describe those efforts.

"We are making rapid progress toward bringing this issue to a close," CEO Paul Garcia said in the statement.

MasterCard and Visa have already sent out notices to their customers who may have been affected, informing them of the possible risk.

As a result of the breach, Visa removed Global Payments from its list of approved service providers. Visa told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that the move was in response to "Global Payments' reported unauthorized access." Visa said it has invited Global Payments to re-apply for validation by submitting evidence that its security is in compliance with Visa's standards.

Global Payments is scheduled to hold a conference call at 5 a.m. PT Monday to provide further information on the incident.