The 40 Million strong research project ?

And was the "research" you mention into your own reckless disregard for the security of customer information? Add 40 million credit cards to the growing tally of sensitive consumer information pilfered from the firms entrusted with it. MasterCard International said Friday that data theives had infiltrated the computer network of CardSystems Solutions, a company that processes transactions between financial services firms and merchants, gaining access to the account numbers and verification codes of some 40 million MasterCard, Visa USA, American Express and Discover cardholders. Nice. The FBI says it is investigating. CardSystems Solutions, the credit card processing outfit from which the data as stolen, acknowledged yesterday that it had mishandled the accounts in question. In an interview with The New York Times, CardSystems Solutions CEO John Perry said the company have been illigitimately retaining consumer records. Why? "Research purposes," Perry told The Times. "We should not have been doing that." No, you should't have, John. Under rules established by Visa and MasterCard, processors like CardSystems are forbidden from retaining cardholder information after handling transactions. "CardSystems provides services and is supposed to pass that information on to the banks and not keep it," Joshua Peirez, a MasterCard official, told the Times. "They were keeping it."