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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hackers spy credit card accounts at Heartland in Princeton

Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton, which helps 250,000 restaurants and stores process millions of credit card card payments each month, says unknown thieves have penetrated its computer systems and stolen customer data.

President Bob Baldwin told me the company still doesn't know what the thieves actually got, but he needs to warn card users to check their statements for stuff they didn't buy.

"After being alerted by Visa and MasterCard of suspicious activity surrounding processed card transactions, Heartland enlisted the help of several forensic auditors to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter," the company said in this statement.

The Heartland breach may be the biggest ever, "with potentially over 100 million cards being compromised," reports ComputerWorld in this article. But Baldwin said the transaction number overstates the number of card users whose data is in the system.

Said the company in its statement, "Heartland has created a website - www.2008breach.com - to provide information about this incident and advises cardholders to examine their monthly statements closely and report any suspicious activity to their card issuers. Cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized fraudulent charges made by third parties."
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 8:55 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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