The security breach at third-party MasterCard payment processor CardSystems Solutions is the world's biggest ever identity theft threat and comes after a string of other identity theft scandals affecting major
Bank of America, data broker ChoicePoint, MCI, Time Warner, Lexis-Nexis,
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a combination of five federal banking regulators, has begun an investigation into the MasterCard breach.
The investigation covers the security at MasterCard and CardSystems and the security at the banks and fellow credit card companies that issue MasterCard-branded credit cards.
The FBI is also conducting a separate criminal investigation into the security breach.
It is thought that account details of at least 200,000 customers were actually stolen by the MasterCard hackers, who were also able to view other accounts.
