International Checkout Hacked, Customer Credit Cards Abused

International Checkout customers began receiving emails that alert them on the fact that the organization has recently fallen victim to a cyberattack which resulted in the theft of a large quantity of personal information, including credit card details.

“International Checkout was recently the victim of a system intruder who was able to access encrypted credit card information,” reads the email provided by SpywareSucks.

“You are receiving this email from International Checkout because your credit card information was in the database which was compromised.”

It seems as the breach was discovered sometime in mid-September and an investigation has immediately commenced. Besides the fact that the authorities were notified of the issue, the credit card information from the databases was removed to make sure no one still had access.

Even though the information was encrypted, the attacker managed to obtain the encryption key that was stored in a separate location.

“As a precaution, International Checkout is providing notification to people whose information may have been in the database that was accessed so that if it turns out the information was compromised in any way, they can take the appropriate measures to protect themselves,” the notification adds.

The company is advising customers to closely monitor their bank account statements for any suspicious transactions. Bank account numbers were not exposed, but credit cards numbers were and in some situations the financial institutions involved may even recommend the changing of the account number.

An important thing customers should know is that they will not be directly contacted by International Checkout, unless they call them first. They alert individuals on the fact that some might profit from the situation and call them pretending to represent the firm, requesting sensitive information.

“We will not call you to ask for bank account information or personal identification numbers (PINs) or for your full credit card or social security number.”

Unfortunately, a lot of companies are on International Checkout’s partner list so the number of potential victims is high and people are already starting to complain about abusive transactions made with their credit cards.