Mastercard Securecode down

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deniser

deniser

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Jun 3, 2008
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  • #3
    J-Wholesale said:
    Has anyone else noticed that MasterCard's 3D secure has been down for much of the afternoon? We've lost orders over this, as the 3D secure page times out.

    Details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539
    Click to expand...

    I saw a message to this effect on our Gateway's website first thing this morning so guess it has been the whole day.

    We don't use it luckily.

    This is what it says:

    Wed 8th Dec 2010 - MasterCard SecureCode unavailable
    Merchants who use MasterCard SecureCode (3D Secure) will currently be experiencing issues with this service. This is due to a directory server issue at MasterCard. We will advise as soon as an update has been received from MasterCard. Please note that transactions will still be processed, and that VISA transactions will be wholly unaffected.
     
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    E

    Esk247

  • #5
    They were hit by hackers. It's all being linked to WikiLeaks and such.

    Personally it shows me that the internet is still not the best place to store your credit card information, if they can bring down MasterCard then they can bring down virtually any other financial website.
     
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    L

    leemason

  • #6
    Esk247 said:
    They were hit by hackers. It's all being linked to WikiLeaks and such.

    Personally it shows me that the internet is still not the best place to store your credit card information, if they can bring down MasterCard then they can bring down virtually any other financial website.
    Click to expand...

    They are not a almost certainly could not access credit card data.

    As I understand it this is a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Basically overloading their server farm with traffic from a very large number of sources to bring down the system.
     
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    Mustaka

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    Feb 3, 2009
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  • #7
    I think the interesting thing here is the precedence these attacks set. It used to be that if you had an issue with someone you went to a rally, rolled a few vans, kicked in some windows and smacked a few riot cops. If a small group of protestors can take down a global payment brand imagine what a large scale protest could do.

    Instead of pretesting at city hall we are going to see prtesting by DDOS I think.
     
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    D

    dalpay_thorsten

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2008
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    Dalvík, Iceland
  • #8
    From MasterCard finally acknowledging the current ongoing issue:
    "Please be advised that MasterCard SecureCode Support has detected a service disruption to the MasterCard Directory Server. The Directory Server service has been failed over to a secondary site however customers may still be experiencing intermittent connectivity issues. More information on the estimated time of recovery will be shared in due course."
    Click to expand...

    I feel very sorry for many merchants who are for the time being unable to accept Maestro online.
     
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    grahamsnowdon

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    Dec 9, 2010
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  • #9
    Hello, please forgive my dropping in here like this. I'm a journalist at the Guardian looking to speak to one or two online businesses who lost orders as a result of the Mastercard outage yesterday. It would just take 10 minutes on the phone, but I need to speak to you this morning (Thursday). If so, please PM me or call me on 020 3353 4760. Thanks, Graham Snowdon.
     
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    L

    leemason

  • #10
    grahamsnowdon said:
    Hello, please forgive my dropping in here like this. I'm a journalist at the Guardian looking to speak to one or two online businesses who lost orders as a result of the Mastercard outage yesterday. It would just take 10 minutes on the phone, but I need to speak to you this morning (Thursday). If so, please PM me or call me on 020 3353 4760. Thanks, Graham Snowdon.
    Click to expand...

    Graham,

    I wasn't affected myself but I have been following your Guardian coverage of this and the whole WikiLeaks saga in twitter and just wanted to say how good I think your coverage is!

    Lee
     
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    grahamsnowdon

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    Dec 9, 2010
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  • #12
    leemason said:
    I wasn't affected myself but I have been following your Guardian coverage of this and the whole WikiLeaks saga in twitter and just wanted to say how good I think your coverage is!
    Click to expand...

    Thanks Lee! Although I can't really take any of the credit myself unfortunately...

    Or if you've been affected by Visa or PayPal problems, I should have added on my original post.
     
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    deniser

    deniser

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    Jun 3, 2008
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  • #13
    grahamsnowdon said:
    Thanks Lee! Although I can't really take any of the credit myself unfortunately...

    Or if you've been affected by Visa or PayPal problems, I should have added on my original post.
    Click to expand...

    The problem is not knowing whether or not there has been a problem caused by the hackers.

    I have had very few orders since yesterday lunchtime - most unusual - but don't know if it is the hacking to blame or the delivery delays because of snow.......
     
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    kulture

    kulture

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    • Aug 11, 2007
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  • #15
    The problem with this attack is that it damages the retailer more than mastercard. This is our busiest time of year and anything that takes shoppers off our web sites damages us. A retailer depends on christmas sales. Many retailers do 50%+ of their annual turnover in this last quarter of the year. Snow and now this will damage sales. Our orders are down 50% from the level of Monday and Tuesday, and we would normally expect the numbers to keep going up.

    I can understand the reason behind the attacks BUT they are really hurting the wrong people. It is not just the huge retailers who depend on mastercard and paypal, but EVERY SMALL INDEPENDENT web site. The effects on the smaller retailer are probably more than the larger ones.
     
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    alphanumeric

    alphanumeric

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    Jan 26, 2009
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    Northamptonshire
  • #17
    if you have the option have your tryed turning off the 3d secure?

    ive not checked with customers but that should in theory stop the failed error being reported back. And get you up and running till this all stops.

    TBH i dont see any fast resolution to the issue, i wont go into any details why but what they are doing is so simple that it will only get worse.
     
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    L

    leemason

  • #19
    This just exposes our massive over reliance on a single financial institution. Should this allow that institution to act with total impunity? Should it be above the law or any moral principle. And doesn't this expose the total inequity in these institutions that an attack on them hurts all of the small retailers who rely on it more that it damages that institution itself. In any reasonable society Mastercard would be held responsible for it's lack of service and have to pay the price.
     
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    dalpay_thorsten

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2008
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    Dalvík, Iceland
  • #20
    kulture said:
    The problem with this attack is that it damages the retailer more than mastercard. This is our busiest time of year and anything that takes shoppers off our web sites damages us. A retailer depends on christmas sales. Many retailers do 50%+ of their annual turnover in this last quarter of the year. Snow and now this will damage sales. Our orders are down 50% from the level of Monday and Tuesday...
    Click to expand...
    KittyCat Boutique said:
    My orders are well down since yesterday - and had some by cheques was wondering why I was getting cheque orders through have not had them in ages! Very annoying.
    Click to expand...
    For an international view of the fallout for online merchants, please see posts at this board:
    webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4240212.htm
     
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    quikshop

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    Oct 11, 2006
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    Wolves
  • #23
    I've had a few panic-calls today from my office manager saying that Verified By Visa has been on and off. I suspect it is having an impact on sales totals but its out of our control.

    It makes you wonder, how shoddy are Mastercard and Visa's infrastructure & security compared to a retailer like Amazon... its outrageous that a retailer has better anti-DOS attack processes in place :eek::mad:
     
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    leemason

  • #24
    Here's a novel idea. How about holding Mastercard/VISA accountable for their failure to provide a contracted service? I think that governments should act to break up this monopoly but in the meantime there must be trade organisations that could bring the resources to bear to force them top pay compensation.
     
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