Global Payments - the seventh biggest "merchant acquirer" in the U.S. - has been left completely shaken by a security breach that has affected nearly 1.5 million credit card accounts. Credit card details have been stolen from the firm. And now Visa has dropped Global Payments after the security breach.

Initially it was believed that over 10 million credit card holders have been affected by the theft. But now it is a little relief to know that the number is limited to 1.5 million only. Global Payments network is widely spread to Europe and Asia while only North-American consumers were affected by the attack.

The attack is believed to have targeted at least 50,000 accounts. Global Payment has not revealed any information that how intruders got access to the data or the nature of breach. The company says that names, social security numbers and addresses remained untouched by the attack, while credit card numbers and passwords were accessed.

MasterCard and Visa have already informed partner banks about the security breach. While taking further precautions, Visa dropped Global Payments out of its registry of approved service providers after the massive security breach as the company failed to meet data security standards of Visa Inc. Visa also said that the Atlanta-based company can apply again after ensuring proper security measures and showing solid evidence of its security standards.

Reportedly, Global Payments has hired some third-party professionals to investigate the issue. It also announced that it would set up a Web site on Monday to help consumers who might be affected by the attack. "We are making rapid progress toward bringing this issue to a close," said Global Payments CEO Paul Garcia in the statement.

It is not the first time when hackers targeted card processors. Previously, 360,000 credit card accounts were stolen by hackers at Citigroup.

(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)