Some more disturbing news for those already anxious about online consumers' fraud- and privacy-related anxieties regarding e-commerce transactions: The AP reports that MasterCard says 68,000 among 13.9 million of its cardholders face "higher levels of risk" regarding exposure to fraud, with the remainder in that group having been exposed to a lesser degree, as the result of a security breach at a card processing company. In all, data pertaining to up to 40 million cardholders, possibly including American Express and Discover customers, may have been exposed.

MasterCard International spokeswoman Jessica Antle said "we are only aware of 68,000 that were actually taken out of card systems data bases." At risk are the names, banks and account numbers of the cardholders, but customers need not worry about identity theft, Antle said. "Social Security numbers, dates of birth, information like that are not stored on your credit card."

The FBI, which is investigating the security breach, would not confirm whether the intrusion was the result of internet hacking. The breach is likely the largest yet involving financial data in a recent series of incidents affecting valuable consumer data.