News and Press Releases

Jan 26, 2009

Alaskans cards reissued after data breach at national debit/credit card processor

New MasterCard credit and debit cards are being issued to customers whose cards may have been compromised in the recent data breach at Heartland Payment Systems, a MasterCard International processor.

Last week, MasterCard International (MI) informed First National that malware designed to capture magnetic stripe data was discovered on the system of Heartland Payment Systems, one of MIs data processing vendors. Certain First National debit and credit cards were among those identified as compromised in the cyber-crime. Other financial institutions nationwide and in Alaska received similar
notices, potentially affecting millions of credit and debit card account holders.

Criminals obtained only card account numbers and did not have access to other private personal information such as name, social security number, etc. The security breach was not in any way the fault of First National Bank Alaska.

Until they receive and activate new cards, cardholders should be aware of the following:

~ To limit risk on debit cards, the Point-of-Sale (POS) limit of identified cards was lowered to $500.

~ To limit risk on credit cards, additional fraud detection measures are being implemented. Authorization of transactions will be declined at certain high risk businesses and geographic locations.

Card fraud can be avoided or greatly reduced by regular review of statements and by use of online banking services to review recent transactions.

Customers with questions should call an Alaskan customer service representative at 777-4362 in Anchorage, or 1-800-856-4362 in other Alaska communities.

 

Contact: Marketing Department, (907) 777-3409