Forwarded from: Malcolm McWhinnie <malcolm_mcwhinnie@private> [The attached letter is below as InfoSec News no longer permits attachments to the list. - WK] Dear colleagues I have attached a letter that has been sent to the London Times, which addresses the recent article entitled "Secret hackers to aid war on internet fraud". I would be obliged if you can assist in the communication process by publishing this letter on your site also. Thank you for your assistance Best Regards Malcolm McWhinnie VP Global Information Security MasterCard International 2200 MasterCard Blvd 290 West Lake O'Fallon MO 63366-7263 (636) 722 4220 -=- Dear Editor: Online retailers may need some reassurance if they have read The Times' article 'Secret hackers to aid war on Internet fraud' (Monday 5th April). The article incorrectly implies that MasterCard is using secret hackers to break into online retailers systems' in a bid to test their security systems without their knowledge. MasterCard does not recruit secret hackers to test security systems of online merchants. Moreover, there is no hacking involved, at all, in our Site Data Protection (SDP) programme, which we publicly announced and launched in 2003. SDP, and its commercially available products and tools, is used only with the knowledge, consent and permission of participating retailers. It helps online retailers to assess their web security to proactively defend themselves against website intrusion and secure their systems against fraud. The programme includes security standards and evaluation tools that help to identify possible weaknesses in online systems, highlighting vulnerabilities in real-time and categorising any potential risks. As a further check, on-line retailers may separately perform their own penetration testing outside the scope of SDP. MasterCard offers SDP through our member financial institutions to online retailers to help them protect data stored in their systems and aid them in their fight against Internet fraud. Yours faithfully Brian Morris MasterCard Europe _________________________________________ ISN mailing list Sponsored by: OSVDB.org
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