The cards are available in: Red Bird, Yellow Bird, Bomb Bird and Bad Piggies – the basic designs you would want.

“We’re excited to be working with Kaiku on this fun new way to bring Angry Birds into the physical world and fans’ everyday lives,” said Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka.

Kaiku CEO Jon Round added, “Kaiku’s partnership with Rovio allows us to continue taking our prepaid Card to a broader audience by empowering consumers with differing needs to maximize their financial future. The collection of Kaiku Angry Birds Cards will not only resonate with the vast number of Angry Birds’ gaming fans, but also consumers who are looking for a smart and affordable financial option in a dynamic and colorful prepaid card.”

I’m not sure at exactly what point Angry Birds became a true pop culture phenomenon. It was certainly quite some time ago, but between this and the upcoming cartoon series, it looks like it won’t be going away anytime soon. Oh yeah, there’s also a movie coming out.

Later, Foursquare and AMEX extended those deals, even launching them across the pond.

Now, Foursquare is making a move to expand these offers to more types of plastic.

The company has announced that they will be extending these types of specials with both Visa and MasterCard, and most debit cards to provide similar check-in offers alongside participating businesses.

Foursquare is working with payment solutions company First Data and CardSpring to expand the seamless specials.

The AMEX/Foursquare deal has morphed over time to start producing more revenue for Foursquare, and the company says that the new deals with Visa and MasterCard will earn them a fee for every offer redeemed. It’s unclear whether that will be a flat fee per offer claimed or some sort of percentage deal.

“This is going to be a pretty core part of our revenue model going forward,” said Foursquare Product Manager Noah Weiss.

According to AdAge, the first offer that should be available today involves $1 off for $10 spent at 8,000 participating Burger King locations.

Since this is going to be a “core part of the revenue model,” it shouldn’t surprise you that Foursquare is also making these credit card deals more prominent within the app.

All you’ll have to do is sync your Visa, MasterCard, or AMEX with your Foursquare account to start earning cashback on purchases made through the app.

He then released the information minus several critical aspects including card number, security code, and expiration date. The message was posted via Pastebin on the 18th of June.

Reckz comments in his Pastebin post about the bank hacks and the release of information:

“Today’s target is VISA & Mastercard, I will be only leaking a portion of the credit card information, as I cannot leak the entire data, it’s too large, and this is the certain proof that i’ve hacked into VISA & Mastercard….”

“I’m also censoring the credit card information such as CC Number, Secret Code, Expiry date for security measures, I also edited the way the information will look, the original one looked bullshit.”

He further explains that his purpose for hacking the banks involves good old fashioned curiosity rather than some malicious intent. He also claims to have no special talents, just passionate curiosity.

He mentions Chase Bank as one of the institutions he infiltrated, but suggests there are several more involved. ZD Net speculates the hacks could be related to a credit card security breach that occurred in late March where big banks sent out letter to customers that a security leak may have compromised their information.

According to another message on Pastebin from Reckz posted on the 12th of June, he is retiring from the hacking business, realizing he has no real purpose for his unusual skill. He says he will use his talents for only good purposes from here on out.

Reckz comments on his retired status:

“I’ve realized that I am doing this shit for nothing.”

“I am officially..a whitehat.”

“I will use my intelligence for good.”

“I’ve done over 50 large hacks, and leaked many essential information, I am sorry if I harmed you, or affected your families.”

“This is my departure from the hacking scene.”

In his post from yesterday, he reminds us that of the purpose for his hacks; all in the name of curiosity and challenge. What I have to wonder is whether his latest hack falls in line with his new mission to use his hacking prowess for only good. Perhaps he hopes to reveal to the general public just how antiquated bank security really is.

If he doesn’t have any overarching goal or message, and his hacks are just for curiosity sake, he probably should retire. He really doesn’t, “fulfill your (our) ‘lulz’ attention with some excitement & entertainment!”, as he suggests.

Visa and Mastercard are most likely very interested (and probably Chase Bank as well), the general public however, doesn’t really care. Find something more exciting to do, you bore me Reckz.

On March 30, Global Payments Inc., a credit card processor based in Atlanta, confirmed unauthorized access into its processing system. The company believes that 1,500,000 card numbers may have been stolen, but that cardholder hames, addresses, and social security numbers were not taken. Having had multiple information security and forensics firms investigate the incident, Global Payments believes it to be contained.

“We are making rapid progress toward bringing this issue to a close. Our nearly 4,000 employees around the world are focused on providing exceptional service. We are open for business and continue to process transactions for all of the card brands,” said Global Payments CEO Paul R. Garcia.

Global Payments provides electronic processing for merchants, Independent Sales Organizations, financial institutions, government agencies, and corporations. It processes credit and debit cards, purchasing cards, gift cards, and electronic checks.

There is no word yet on any progress finding those responsible for the data theft. What might be done with the stolen data is unknown. Global Payments also did not make any recommendations for consumers whose card numbers may have been compromised.

The alerts began going out late last week, but the actual security breach happened between January 21 and February 25 of this year. Banks were told that “full Track 1 and Track 2 data was taken,” which is enough information to counterfeit new credit cards.

Only MasterCard is speaking out so far. “As a result, we have alerted payment card issuers regarding certain MasterCard accounts that are potentially at risk,” the company said to NewsCore, according to the New York Post.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a MasterCard spokesperson said, “MasterCard’s own systems have not been compromised in any manner.”

VISA has not issued any statements, and there is no word yet on which card processor was compromised. Krebs stated that banks are analyzing transaction data to determine any commonalities in purchased made on the compromised cards.

From the Krebs article:

Sources at two different major financial institutions said the transactions that most of the cards they analyzed seem to have in common are that they were used in parking garages in and around the New York City area.

It’s not clear how many cards were breached in the processor attack, but a sampling from one corner of the industry provides some perspective. On Wednesday, PSCU — a provider of online financial services to credit unions — said it alerted 482 credit unions that appear to have had cards impacted by the breach, and that a total of 56,455 member VISA and MasterCard accounts were compromised. PSCU said fraudulent activity had been detected on a relatively small number of those cards — 876 accounts — and that the activity was geographically dispersed.

Yesterday I shared an infographic on the largest hacking scandals in the past decade. Financial institutions must be hoping this latest one is dealt with swiftly and with a minimum of disruption to the financial industry.

(via Krebs on Security)

“In today’s increasingly complex financial world, we must find creative ways to help parents and educators teach children the fundamentals of money management,” said Jason Alderman, Senior Director of Global Financial Education, Visa Inc. “A comic book with Spider-Man and the Avengers is the perfect device for making the sometimes dull subject of financial literacy entertaining and educational,” Alderman added.

This financial literacy comic was created by a well-known team of Marvel storytellers, including veteran writer James Asmus (Generation Hope). Fan favorite Andrea Di Vito (Avengers Academy) designed the comic which features the world’s most popular superheroes including Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk and Black Widow. The collectors’ item comic also features a new cover by comic’s legend Tom Grummett. “A wise man once said that with great power there must come great responsibility and that certainly applies to managing your finances,” said Marvel editor Bill Rosemann. “In an uncertain world, understanding how to save and properly budget your hard-earned money is one of the keys to personal success. The Avengers are not only the world’s greatest heroes, but they also know a thing or three about financial health. After all, Iron Man hasn’t managed his vast wealth of Stark Enterprises by accident, and as Spider-Man learns, you don’t have to be a millionaire to be a saving hero,” said Rosemann.

Avengers: Saving The Day is a 16-page comic book with a fast-moving plot revolving around Spider-Man and the Avengers learning about personal finance, while battling the evil Mole Man during an attempted heist. The book is accompanied by a teacher’s guide that uses Marvel’s characters to introduce children to basic financial concepts such as budgeting, saving and banking. Available at no cost, both in print and online at www.practicalmoneyskills.com/avengers, Avengers: Saving The Day is being released around the world and is available in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, English, French, Portugese, Russian and Spanish.

Comic Book Companies and Financial institutions are not usually linked together. Occasionally you will get something like the great Visa commercial with comedian Jerry Seinfeld and the legendary Superman.

eBay was involved in two industry panels during CES that discussed the future of digital and mobile payment industries. The company was able to announce record mobile payment volume.

The Ebay Ink Blog was kind of enough to recap the panels that Ebay was involved with. The first panel was PayPal at “Mobile Payment Basics: How the Technology Works.” The title sounds like a boring introductory course, but it turned into a discussion on the pros and cons of the “wallet in the cloud” versus NFC solutions for mobile payments.

“We see the wallet in the cloud as the best way to bridge the gap between the online and offline world,” said David Marcus, VP/GM of Mobile for PayPal.

Andrew Paradise, CEO of Aislebuyer, agreed saying, “If I lose my iPhone, I don’t want to have to cancel all my credit cards. It would be no different than losing my wallet.”

Bill Gadja, Head of Mobile for Visa, was more in favor for NFC solutions, but said that “whatever technology we end up using, it’s all going to come down to the widespread education and adoption by the individual merchants.”

All at the panel agreed that 2012 may very well be the year of the digital wallet. Paypal used this to announce that their mobile payment volume had reached $4 billion, a huge increase from the original prediction of $1.5 billion.

The second panel, aptly named “Planet of the Apps,” included the eBay company proper with Steve Yankovich, VP of Ebay Mobile, speaking on the panel.

The panelists discussed trends in mobile apps in 2011, but Yankovich stressed the importance of QR codes in 2011. He predicts that the next big trend will be apps that utilize the camera on mobile devices.

Chris Hercik, Creative Director at Sports Illustrated, said that organizations need to adapt and react to shifts in consumer behavior. He presented the example of readers using the Sports Illustrated mobile app are asking for interactive ads instead of having to reject or be put off by them.

Yankovich went on to equate eBay to plumbing in that they only exist to connect the buyer to the seller.

eBay, like PayPal, did well in mobile in 2011 as well. The company’s global mobile gross merchandise volume reached $5 billion in 2011.

That’s the rationale behind the new “You + Ten Facebook Draft” application which looks at each person’s friends list and chooses the 10 people that should accommodate the winner using common Facebook social graphs.

The app is a continuation of a contest started in September that offered Visa card holders a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl. There was a subsequent ad campaign featuring the fictional story of a man who had won the contest and the travels he shared with his 10 guests to Indianapolis. The campaign will end on February 5 at Super Bowl XLVI in Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis.

While the app uses common social graphs to determine the 10 people, it does so in unique and Super Bowl appropriate ways. A small sample of the names used for the 10 people chosen are “#1 Fan” for the friend who likes the most statuses or “VIP” for the friend that the potential winner is in a relationship with.

It uses all of this information to create a short video announcing the friends that the potential winner will be taking with them to Indianapolis with sports-like commentary. In the chance that the app makes unsatisfactory selections, it also allows the user to put their own selections into each section to create the custom video to their liking.

While Visa card holders were automatically entered for using their cards, this new Facebook app only reinforces the success of Facebook as an interactive and personal advertising vehicle.

Square COO Keith Rabbois told the Wall Street Journal that the company will continue to “explore collaborative partnerships that might make sense,” that the two companies’ visions “align”. The journal reports:

More than eight million U.S. businesses accept Visa and Mastercard, Rabois said. Square is trying to help the 27 million businesses and entrepreneurs that don’t accept credit cards because they haven’t qualified due to poor or no credit history, Rabois said.

The investment comes at a very interesting time in Square’s existence. The company is certainly really starting to build steam, but as you may know, Square co-founder Jack Dorsey recently returned to day-to-day operations at Twitter, in addition to remaining in the CEO role at Square. The man has his hands full, no doubt. He’s essentially taken Evan Williams’ place at Twitter, and Square continues to grow its staff.

Interestingly enough, Rabbois told the WSJ that he interacts with Dorsey the same amount that he did before Dorsey went back to Twitter. It doesn’t sound like the Twitter gig is putting too much of a strain on Square.

The backing of Visa should alleviate any of the concerns out there about Square’s potential for success, and about security, for that matter. You may recall earlier this year when Square competitor Verifone blasted Square over a security issue. The claims ended up being blasted themselves, and essentially called out as being a back-handed competitive stroke.

Now, you have to wonder if investments from other major credit card companies will follow.

Visa said the acquisition complements its further expansion into digital and mobile commerce.  The deal follows Visa’s purchase of another online payment company, CyberSource in July.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in Visa’s fiscal second quarter 2011 and is expected to slightly dilute the company’s earning per share in its fiscal year 2011 ending September 30, 2011.

Last year, global ecommerce sales reached an estimated $948 billion and they remain a significant growth opportunity for Visa. Approximately 45 percent of U.S. online spend takes place on Visa’s network today.