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Heartland Payments Systems is still taking its standing eight count after one of the worst data breaches in history, but with its Visa PCI DDS validation restored, the firm hopes to emerge with a sober lesson it can share with other firms to prevent future breaches.
May 1 -
More than 97% of eligible Visa Inc. credit and debit card issuers have accepted a settlement offer related to last year's major data security breach at Heartland Payment Systems Inc., the companies said last week.
February 5 -
The payment processor wants to grow through acquisition and work directly with merchants.
May 23
Heartland Payment Systems has reported it suffered another data breach last month.
In a press release, the Princeton, N.J., payments processor said it was notified of a burglary that took place at the Heartland Payroll office in Santa Ana, Calif. The payroll office, formerly Ovation Payroll, is in the process of being integrated into Heartlands information security and physical security systems and processes. Among the items stolen were televisions, monitors and 11 password-protected desktop computers. Of these 11 computers, Heartland suspects that four computers contained personally identifiable information.
The four computers were not connected to any other Heartland office, business, system or server, but may have contained PII on some of the individuals serviced from that payroll office. Heartland has notified local, state and federal authorities and has also alerted approximately 2,200 individuals that their personal information may have been affected by the burglary. The compromised information may include Social Security numbers and bank account information.
Heartland claims it sees no evidence to suggest the data were or will be used. "To date, there is no indication that any of this information has been accessed or used in a fraudulent manner or that the thieves intended to access the information," the company said in the press release. "Regardless, we take this incident seriously."
The company said it is involving regulatory and law enforcement agencies to help it move forward. It's working with the risk mitigation services company Kroll to offer customers identity theft protection for a year at no cost.
In 2008, Heartland suffered what is now considered one of the largest ever criminal data breaches, having exposed data of up to 100 million credit and debit cards issued by more than 650 financial services companies. The cost for Heartland was more than $32 million.
