About 12,000 local cardholders may be affected by the US credit card data leakage, but the risk of similar incidents in Hong Kong is low, Monetary Authority Deputy Chief Executive Raymond Li said in HK Monday.

Li told the Legislative Council Financial Affairs Panel there are suspected unauthorized transactions involving 134 credit cards,totaling 740,000 HK dollars (94,872 US dollars).

He said CardSystems reportedly breached security standards as it stored cardholders' information after providing authorization and validation processes on behalf of merchants. Local card holders may be affected if they purchase at US retail outlets either at the point-of-sale or online.

In view of the incident, local authorized institutions have contacted most of the potentially affected cardholders for card replacement. For those who cannot be reached, transactions conducted through their cards are monitored closely.

Meanwhile, the authority has issued comprehensive guidance to authorized institutions and its specialists will conduct IT on-site examinations. The authority has also required parties involved to reassess the adequacy and effectiveness of controls over customer data security.

Li said card issuers will bear the full loss incurred when faults have occurred in the terminals or other systems used which cause cardholders to suffer direct loss, and when transactions are made through the use of counterfeit cards.

Source: Xinhua