Company That Had The Largest Ever Credit Card Data Breach... Apparently Breached Again [Update]

from the hits-you-in-the-heartland dept

Remember Heartland Payment Systems? It's the giant credit card clearinghouse that was involved in the largest ever security breach in terms of the number of credit card numbers exposed. They were successfully targeted by the same guys who had also set the previous record for largest credit card data breach, so you could question whether the issue was just a sophisticated group of hackers or poor security at Heartland (or, possibly, a combination of both). Either way, it looks like Heartland may still have some issues. Carlo sends over the news that a new security breach has been discovered at a restaurant in Austin, Texas that appears to involve someone hacking into the network between the restaurant and Heartland. It's not yet clear if this goes beyond that one restaurant, but this can't look good for Heartland.

Update: Heartland got in touch to let us know that this appears to be an issue outside of Heartland's system, and that Heartland is not the target of the investigation into the breach. Heartland's press release is basically pointing out that the weakness was with the restaurant's credit card security, not its own.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: breach, credit cards, security
Companies: heartland payment systems


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Wolfy, 12 Aug 2010 @ 5:39pm

    Another argument in favor of cash.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    CJ (profile), 12 Aug 2010 @ 7:18pm

    Lets stick around, and see what kind, and how bad, their punishment is for this. Then we'll know whom to look at to blame the next breech on. I have not seen one as of yet that really got punished properly.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2010 @ 8:22pm

    Remember Heartland Payment Systems?

    More importantly, Remember Carlo?

    Is this the same Carlo you fired about a year ago? How's he been? Is he still in Vegas?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Willbfree1 (profile), 13 Aug 2010 @ 6:22am

    Security Breach Again!

    This so sad for this company and customers. This is a lose lose situation. When this company fix the problem it will still lose customers and the former customers will never trust any other company fully again.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Ed C, 13 Aug 2010 @ 12:12pm

      Re: Security Breach Again!

      What I think is unreasonable is that with all of the money Heartland gets from handling financial transactions and information, that it can't even be bothered to insure their security. The business is founded on the trust that they can be handled security, and that trust has been broken. Any lose of business that results from these breaches is the lest they deserve.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris, 13 Aug 2010 @ 7:23am

    PCI

    So how's that PCI compliance requirement working out for everyone?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2010 @ 5:36pm

    Remember Heartland Payment Systems? It's the giant credit card clearinghouse that was involved in the largest ever security breach in terms of the number of credit card numbers exposed.


    Largest ever? I think you mean largest yet. :P

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2010 @ 7:37am

    Somebody else's fault?

    Details are scarce in these reports, but it looks as if the numbers were going through the network in the clear. At what point in the chain did Heartland first have the ability to encrypt them with Heartland's public key?

    If they were intercepted before this point, then I think Heartland was not to blame...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • double trouble

    oh! that makes two, 3 strikes and they're out

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • small business.

    I say that we just make it a 2 strike rule and get rid of these guys. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    lrobbo (profile), 12 Jun 2012 @ 11:43am

    Fool me twice,er, won't, er won't get fooled again . . .

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.