Millions impacted by payment provider hack – here's how to stay safe

Canadian electronic payment gateway Slim CD has been hit by a cyberattack. The perpetrators managed to access and steal sensitive financial data.

Slim CD is a processing gateway that handles electronic payments, including credit card payments for US and Canadian-based merchants.

Credit card holders whose payments were processed by Slim CD’s electronic payment gateway are among those affected by a recent data security incident.

The notice to affected clients stated that on or about June 15th, 2024, Slim CD became “aware of suspicious activity in its computer environment.”

The investigation identified that unauthorized actors might have had access to the systems between August 17th, 2023, and June 15th, 2024, which enabled them to view or obtain certain credit card information.

According to regulators in Maine state, 1,693,000 people were affected in total. The data impacted by the breach reportedly include clients’ names, addresses, credit card numbers, and card expiration dates.

Slim CD stated that there is “no evidence” so far that any stolen data has been used to commit identity theft or fraud. While the company has not offered the victims credit monitoring services, it encourages individuals who may be affected to remain vigilant of any suspicious activities.

How to say safe?

Cybernews advises users to stay vigilant and protect themselves by taking the following steps:

• Contact your bank to replace your breached credit card.
• Regularly review your bank statements, credit card transactions, and online account activity to quickly identify any unauthorized charges and reduce the impact of a breach.
• Inform your bank regarding any unauthorized transactions.
• Reset the passwords for all accounts associated with the leaked passwords. It is strongly recommended that you select strong, unique passwords that are not reused across multiple platforms. You can use a password generator to create strong passwords.
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible. This enhances security by requiring additional verification beyond a password.
• Use password manager software to securely generate and store complex passwords. Password managers mitigate the risk of password reuse across different accounts.