The data from as many as 100,000 credit cards were endangered by a security breach, the financial paper Kauppalehti reports.

“The Finnish police is investigating the data theft of at least 40,000 credit cards from a computer in a store in Helsinki, reports the Bloomberg news agency.

The store’s computer system was breached from abroad. Card copies of the stolen data have already been used in different parts of the world.

The security breach was revealed through the security surveillance of the full-service card payment company Luottokunta in the middle of January.

According to the police the data from as many as 100,000 credit cards were endangered by the security breach.

Henry Kylänlahti, the Fraud and Dispute Manager at Luottokunta, refuses to reveal the target of the data breach. Also the police will not reveal the target. However, some conclusions can be made based on the fact that the word ‘shopkeeper’ was used instead of shop.

According to Kylänlahti this is the biggest information breach in Finland, or at least one of the biggest. An indication of the magnitude is that in an average year Luottokunta changes about 4,000 cards due to cases of payment fraud.

On the question of whether the shopkeeper is now in difficulty Kylänlahti gives an evasive answer:

‘You could also put it that way.’

According to Kylänlahti the shop's owner is always responsible for security in these matters. In this case the shopkeeper's information security methods were not up to standard.

Luottokunta knows the data of all the credit cards involved in the matter and the company is tracking their use worldwide.

Kylänlahti emphasises that the breach will not cost anything to the cards true owners.

KAUPPALEHTI 19 February. JR LESKINEN
LEHTIKUVA - pekka sakki