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St. Louis Business & Technology News
www.slfp.com/SLFPBIZp.htm "When you think Saint Louis, think Saint Louis Front Page," a weekly publication covering the news and events in the greater St. Louis area. 
St. Louis Front Page P.O. Box 1354 St. Louis, MO 63188 Voice: 314-771-0200 Fax: 314-771-0300 To submit news, contact: editor@slfp.com To advertise, contact: advertising@slfp.com 
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Thieves Steal 40 Million Credit Card Accounts ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com) June 19, 2005 - In what might amount to one of the largest data heists ever, MasterCard has reported that it believes up to 40 million cardholders of such credit card brands as MasterCard, American Express and others have been jeopardized in a massive theft at third party credit card processor, CardSystems Solutions Inc. The breach compromised account holder names, banks and account numbers. CardSystems Solutions identified a potential security incident on Sunday, May 22nd. On Monday, May 23rd, CardSystems contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Subsequently, the VISA and MasterCard Card Associations were notified to alert them of a possible security incident. CardSystems immediately began a remediation process to ensure all systems were secure. Additionally, CardSystems immediately engaged an independent 3rd party to validate systems security. Since that time, concurrent to the investigation proceedings, CardSystems is completing the installation of enhanced/additional security procedures recommended by the security assessor involved in the investigation. In a statement, Bill Reeves, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, CardSystems Solutions, Inc. said, "We understand and fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Our customers and their customers are our lifeblood. We are sparing no effort to get to the bottom of this matter. Our goal is to cooperate fully with the FBI to complete the investigation and ensure that we do nothing that might compromise the investigation." The MasterCard disclosure adds fuel to a growing uproar among privacy rights experts and government regulators who fear that Americans are increasingly threatened by identity theft and other privacy violations due to sloppy or inadequate data privacy and data security practices. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate debated different approaches to dealing with the problem. In the meantime, more and more states are following the lead of California, whose groundbreaking information privacy act called SB1386 mandates that all potential privacy breaches be publicly disclosed to those affected. Online Newspaper Consumption Soars NEW YORK, (PRNewswire) June 19, 2005 - A fifth of online users who read newspapers now rely primarily on web editions, according to findings reported by Nielsen//NetRatings. The research focused exclusively on Internet users who consume newspapers and excluded online users who obtain their news from other online news and information sources. A significant 21 percent of Web users who read newspapers have transferred their readership primarily to the online version, while a majority, or 72 percent, of online users who consume newspapers primarily still access print editions. Seven percent of online users who consume newspapers split their time evenly between the online and offline editions. Survey Question: Many newspapers have both print and online versions. In the past week, which statement would best reflect your newspaper readership? The breakdown of Online/Offline Newspaper Consumption: Primarily Print Newspaper Reading - 72% Primarily Online Newspaper Reading - 21% Split Between Print & Online Newspaper Reading - 7% "A significant percentage of newspaper readers have transferred their preference from print to online editions," said Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Accordingly, many online editions now feature original content and have developed an online strategy that includes online message boards and editorial blogs, which leverage the medium's strengths of interactivity and immediacy." A greater proportion of male readers than female readers access their newspapers primarily online. Men who primarily read online newspapers make up 53 percent of online readers while women comprise 47 percent. In comparison, women make up 57 percent of those who read newspapers primarily in print. NYTimes.com led the top five online newspapers with an audience of 11.3 million unique visitors during May 2005, followed by USAToday.com with 9.2 million readers and WashingtonPost.com with 7.4 million viewers (see Table 2). Rounding out the top five were LATimes.com with 3.8 million and San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com) with 3.4 million unique visitors. "Not surprisingly, the top online newspapers tend to be located in metropolitan cities where both population and broadband access rates are higher, which correlates with greater Web page consumption," said Davidson. Return to St. Louis Front Page  
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