Biometric firm snaps up hacked card processor

October 18, 2005

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/16



Biometrics firm Pay By Touch Solutions has agreed to buy CardSystems Solutions, a credit-card processor whose compromised systems leaked information on nearly 40 million credit-card accounts earlier this year.

The deal, announced on Friday, comes as Pay By Touch finds itself flush with cash. On October 5, the company announced that investors had ponied up $130 million to fund the firm's expansion plans.

Buying the assets of CardSystems Solutions gives the firm access to the beleaguered credit-card processor's 120,000 merchant accounts, to which Pay By Touch hopes to sell its fingerprint transaction technology. CardSystems Solutions made headlines in June when Mastercard International revealed that the firm's poor security practices allowed some 40 million credit-card accounts to be leaked, with at least 200,000 accounts confirmed compromised.

On September 1, CardSystems announced that it had complied with credit-card companies and satisfied auditors that its security measures now comply with the financial firms' standards.

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