Skip to main content

Your American Express credit card info may have been hacked

WWDC
DigitalTrends.com

American Express has put out a data breach advisory after third-party merchants experienced a hacking incident targeting its payment hardware, as reported by Bleeping Computer.

The financial services company detailed that the breach occurred in Massachusetts and is associated with an “American Express Travel Related Services Company.” It resulted in several merchants suffering “unauthorized access to its system.” Customers’ credit card information, including account numbers, names, and card expiration data, may have been exposed in the process.

Recommended Videos

“Account information of some of our Card Members, including some of your account information, may have been involved. It is important to note that American Express-owned or -controlled systems were not compromised by this incident, and we are providing this notice to you as a precautionary measure,” American Express said in a statement.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The company noted that it was the merchant processor, meaning the hardware that accepts payment, that was compromised, not a direct American Express service provider. Even so, customer data is potentially circulating the dark web, after having been accessed by hackers. American Express has not publicly shared specifics on how many customers were affected when the breach took place or what merchant processor was hacked.

The incident is reminiscent of the Wiseasy hack in 2022, in which the Android-based payment system popular in the Asia-Pacific region was compromised and 140,000 payment terminals were affected globally. The payment terminals are used in restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, and schools. However, it was not clear whether Wiseasy notified its customers about the hack.

American Express said it has begun to investigate the matter, in addition to alerting the required regulatory authorities and impacted customers.

The company told BleepingComputer that customers should review their account statements closely for the next 12 to 24 months, making sure to report any suspicious activity. The institution does not hold card members responsible for any fraudulent purchases.

Other recommendations include enabling instant notifications through the American Express mobile app, which allows users to review their purchases and receive instant fraud alerts. Card members also have the option to request a new card number, in the event that their information is stolen.

Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh is a Computing Writer at Digital Trends. She covers a range of topics in the computing space, including…
Apple’s secret Vision Pro controller suggests it’s finally taking VR gaming seriously
A person gaming on the Apple Vision Pro headset.

You would think that Apple’s Vision Pro headset would be the perfect platform for virtual reality (VR) gaming. After all, it has a top-notch processor, super-high-resolution displays, and both VR and augmented reality (AR) capabilities. In theory, that should make it a leading device for gamers.

The reality is, unfortunately, very different, with few popular gaming titles making it onto visionOS. And really, Apple’s headset is held back by one key weakness: its lack of proper VR controller support.

Read more
Big tech is dominating my digital life — here’s how I fixed it
big tech logos around capitol hill

Big tech companies are so dominant and so far-reaching right now that people could probably live their entire digital lives interacting only with Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon products. Things never got quite that bad for me but I did realize recently that I've been relying far too much on Google, plus I’ve been using Safari for years even though I don’t actually like it that much.

So I decided to find some new apps to try out and came across a nice resource full of European, open-source, or non-profit alternatives for a range of different services. It introduced me to quite a few apps that are more than good enough to replace what I was using, and although I’m not hardcore enough to completely kick Google out of my life, I’m pretty happy with the results.
What’s so bad about big tech?

Read more
Meta faces lawsuit for training AI with pirated books
A silhouetted person holds a smartphone displaying the Facebook logo. They are standing in front of a sign showing the Meta logo.

In a recent lawsuit, Meta has been accused of using pirated books to train its AI models, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's approval. As per Ars Technica, the lawsuit filed by authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sarah Silverman in a California federal court, cite internal Meta communications indicating that the company utilized the Library Genesis (LibGen) dataset—a vast online repository known for hosting pirated books—despite internal concerns about the legality of using such material.

The authors argue that Meta's actions infringe upon their copyrights and could undermine the company's position with regulators. They claim that Meta's AI models, including Llama, were trained using their works without permission, potentially harming their livelihoods. Meta has defended its practices by invoking the "fair use" doctrine, asserting that using publicly available materials to train AI tools is legal in certain cases, such as "using text to statistically model language and generate original expression."

Read more