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Background

This is largely related to issues that many merchant's face when reviewing their compliance to the PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Full details of this standard can be sourced from http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Answer

In terms of finding stored payment card (credit card) numbers on a computer based system, the following 3 options generally exist:

1. Using Windows or Linux text string search functions

To find bulk data you can use the Windows Search function or Linux Grep function. Start by looking for a sequence of numbers such as '4564' (Common Visa) or '5353' (Common MasterCard). This is the most basic (however highly inaccurate) method of potentially finding files that contain card numbers. This method would only bear a positive result if files were stored on the system which contained a wide variety of payment card prefixes that included either of those mentioned. This approach is not one that could be relied upon in a commercial environment.

2. Develop a script that utilises regular expressions to identify payment card number patterns.

For example, to find a common Visa card number you would begin by searching for numbers conforming to the following rules:

- Commence with a number 4

- Are 13 or 16 digits in length

- The last digit conforms to the Modulas 10 (Luhn Algorithm) check digit routine

A common reference for payment card number structures can be identified here: http://www.merriampark.com/anatomycc.htm

This approach is still not 100% reliable and will yield a high number of false positive results. This is simply due to the volume of numeric data that rests on a computer file system (within program files, data files, text files and numerous other storage forms).

3. Utilise a payment card finder application

A well written application that is purpose designed to identify card numbers will assist a user in finding stored payment card numbers on a given system with minimal effort.

The application should provide a range of benefits including:

- Enable a user with little or no technical skill to search for stored cards

- Identify all known card types

- Minimise or hide matches that are not real payment card

An example of such a program is Card Recon which has a free version available for download at http://www.groundlabs.com/products/getfree

External LinksPayment Card Industry Data Security Standard - http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

The anatomy of credit card numbers - http://www.merriampark.com/anatomycc.htm

Card Recon payment card finder software - http://www.groundlabs.com/products/getfree

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