Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Noodles & Co. reported that malware led to the compromise of an undisclosed number of customers’ credit and debit cards between Jan. 31 and June 2 at 407 locations in 27 states and the District of Columbia representing 80% of its 507 total stores; the fast-casual restaurant chain began investigating “unusual activity” May 17 after being alerted by its card processor, but it took until June 2 to discover the breach. The malware has been removed, but cardholder names, card numbers, expiration dates, and card verification values may have been exposed.
• In other data-breach news, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas reported that it found malware on its payment-card processing system and that data from cards used at some of its restaurant and retail properties between Oct. 27, 2015, and March 21 of this year may have stolen. The resort in May 2015 reported a similar data breach.
• Regional automated clearinghouse associations SWACHA and EastPay announced they are merging to form ePayResources effective Aug. 1. The entities’ advisory services also will merge to form ePayAdvisors.
• Two Democratic U.S. senators sent letters to the CEOs of Green Dot Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and MasterCard Inc. asking what went wrong with the Green Dot-issued Walmart MoneyCard last month when some cardholders were unable to get access to their accounts or make purchases; the glitch happened as Green Dot switched processing of the card to a MasterCard system.
• Meridian, the largest credit union in Ontario, has launched Mobile Pay, a contactless service that lets users pay with a debit card stored in an Android device. The service leverages the Interac network’s Flash technology for contactless PIN debit acceptance. Three other Canadian credit unions are also supporting Mobile Pay: Affinity Credit Union and Conexus Credit Union, both in Saskatchewan, and First West Credit Union in British Columbia.
• Merchant processor Pivotal Payments announced it has been certified as a direct connector to the Interac debit network in Canada.
• Processor North American Bancard Holdings LLC said both versions of its PayAnywhere credit card readers—one for magnetic stripe-only transactions and the other that also includes EMV and contactless payments—are now for sale nationwide at Best Buy Co. Inc. stores.
• Processor First Data Corp. said Silicon Valley Bank will refer its customers to First Data for e-commerce payments services.
• Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay mobile wallet debuted in Asia with its launch in Singapore. More than 30,000 terminals in the city-state support the service.
• Data-security provider SecurityMetrics released Perimeter Scan, a service for larger organizations.
