Heartland data breach sparks security concerns in payment industry
Lack of details, company's size spur questions about how system intrusion happened
Computerworld - The lack of details surrounding the potentially massive data breach that Heartland Payment Systems Inc. disclosed this week is fueling questions and concerns within the payment processing industry about the exact nature of the security compromise.
The concerns also are being driven by the fact that Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland is one of the largest processors of credit and debit card transactions in the U.S. It handles more than 100 million card transactions per month for 250,000 clients; that a company so large could have its systems compromised by intruders for what appears to have been an extended period of time is prompting more than the usual curiosity about how the breach took place.
In addition, Heartland, as a large processor of card transactions, has been required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard — a set of security controls mandated by the major credit card companies — for a considerably longer time than retailers have been. As a result, Heartland was generally expected to have stronger controls in place for preventing, detecting and responding to system intrusions than many other entities covered by the PCI rules do.
"We're dying for information on this one," said Henry Helgeson, president and co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based provider of payment card processing services and software. "Everybody who processes card information is dying to know how exactly this happened."
For the time being, Helgeson added, he and other Merchant Warehouse officials are "scratching [our] heads" about the breach at Heartland. "One of our frustrations right now is, if this is a new attack, we need to know about it," he said. "We need to know if what happened to Heartland can happen to [other payment processors]."
Heartland disclosed the breach on Tuesday, saying that unknown intruders had broken into its networks sometime last year and stolen payment card transaction data. Although Heartland didn't disclose the number of card accounts that might have been compromised, some outside estimates from analysts and people within payment industry have pegged the number at more than 100 million, which would make it by far the biggest payment card breach to date — surpassing the 45.6 million card numbers that The TJX Companies Inc. said were stolen in a breach that the retailer disclosed in January 2007.
Based on the small amount of information that Heartland has released so far, the hackers appear to have planted some sort of malware capable of sniffing out payment card data as it moved across the company's network, and then to have spirited it out of Heartland's systems in encrypted data streams.



- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Streamline Compliance and Increase ROI
- Streamline, simplify, and automate compliance related activities; especially those that impact multiple business units. This white paper from NetIQ, outlines solutions that will...
- Protecting Point of Sale Systems from Targeted Attack
- If you are responsible for protecting retail systems, download this case study to learn how this retailer eliminated the threat of malware on...
- From the Frontline - Preventing APT
- Is your company's network secure? Are your endpoints and servers secured? Before you answer, read this case study on a US Military Command...
- Stop Hackers Before They Attack
- Hacktivism, Identify Theft, Financial Gain, Cyber War - regardless of motivation, stopping today's hackers requires a new proactive approach to protecting endpoints. Learn...
- The four rules of complete web protection
- As an IT manager you've always known the web is a dangerous place. But with infections growing and the demands on your time... All Cybercrime and Hacking White Papers
- WikiLeaks: How am I Affected?
- The latest WikiLeaks episode has raised questions about how organizations and governments protect their sensitive information. While this incident was isolated, it has...
- Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
- Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
- Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
- Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn... All Cybercrime and Hacking Webcasts