Data thieves compromise bank cards issued by 12 banks of Latvia

Data thieves have managed to copy details of payment cards issued by 12 banks in Latvia, according to information released by First Data Latvia payment technology and services provider.

The thieves stole the bank card data at ATMs in the Baltic states.

Zanda Brivule-Jansone, the Baltic CEO of First Data Latvia, said that roughly 2,000 bank cards might have been compromised in the scam, but that for some of the 12 banks, only one or two cards were affected.

She indicated that the bank cards issued in Latvia were well protected by the EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) smart card technology and that their details could not be copied in full, which ruled out any losses for the banks or card users.

Some of the banks, however, have blocked the compromised cards to lessen the risks, Brivule-Jansone said.

"From time to time, data thieves manage to copy card details by attaching fake keyboards or reading devices to ATMs," the First Data Latvia representative said.

A representative of Latvia's DNB Banka confirmed to LETA news agency that the bank has received information suggesting that some of its clients' cards might have been used at unsafe ATMs and that the bank had blocked these cards as a preventive measure. Endit