Zixit, says its credit card data was breached

DALLAS: ZixIt Corp., which operates a service for secure and private e-mail

messages, on Wednesday reported a breach of a credit card database run by its

subsidiary, and that fraudulent transactions had been processed.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident at the unit,

Anacom Communications, ZixIt said.

The company said it was informed of the intrusion on June 18, and on

Wednesday received independent confirmation of the intrusion and fraudulent

processing. It then began notifying credit card companies about any accounts

that may have been breached.

"At this stage we have not determined the extent of the potential

damage, but we have taken all appropriate steps to prevent further access to

customer data," ZixIt Chief Executive David Cook said in a statement.

Cook also said ZixIt's secure Internet communications services are separate

from those of Anacom - which provides credit card processing services - and are

not at all involved in the breach.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.