Heartland Payment Systems Compromises Millions of Debit and Credit Cards

Unless you use cash for all of your purchases, you may be at risk from a large security hack at one of the largest credit card processors. Heartland Payment Systems data breach may be the first breach to expose over 100 million Americans.

Heartland Payment Systems, considered the fifth largest payment processing company, found “malicious software” on their systems that have compromised data in their systems. This company, based in Princeton, New Jersey, processes Visa and MasterCard transactions.

The president and CFO of Heartland Payment Systems, Robert H.B. Baldwin Jr., said during an interview that the breach did not involve “merchant data, cardholders’ Social Security numbers, unencrypted personal identification numbers, addresses or telephone numbers.” Debit and credit card numbers were exposed. Baldwin went on to state “We understand that this incident may be the result of a widespread global cyber fraud operation, and we are cooperating closely with the United States Secret Service and Department of Justice.”

At this time, authorities are working with the company to investigate the source of the security breach, and in the meantime, Heartland Payment Systems is upping its’ security levels to ensure a situation like this does not happen again. Affected individuals should cancel existing debit and credit cards and replace them with new ones. Enrolling in a credit protection service is also a great idea.