Heartland Payment Systems Breach

On January 20 -- Inauguration Day -- Heartland Payment Systems, which handles over 100 million credit card transactions a month, quietly announced that their forensic auditing teams have uncovered a piece of malicious software buried in their processing system -- a security hole that allowed hackers to capture an unknown number of credit card transactions. At this point, they can't determine exactly when the hole was created, so therefore they can't determine who has been compromised. It was a very sophisticated attack, according to Robert Baldwin, the company's president and CFO. Heartland thinks that the hole has been plugged, but the forensic investigation is continuing.
With this late-breaking story, I've read differing reports on the extent of exposure. One report acknowledges that card holder names and numbers were lifted but says that no merchant data or card holder Social Security numbers, or card PINs were involved. Another report felt that enough information was compromised to be able to duplicate the card.
Could you be affected by this? Absolutely, and quite possibly. Heartland processes MasterCard and Visa transactions from over 175,000 merchants (retailers, restaurants, small shops, and big chains). There is no way yet to determine if your credit card transactions were compromised, but given the time of exposure and number of merchants involved, the likelihood is not miniscule.
One of the affected local banks is Forcht Bank, one of the ten largest banks in Kentucky. Forcht Bank has already begun taking steps to protect its customers by reissuing 8,500 debit cards. Forcht's COO Tyronica Crutcher indicated that there was reason to believe some debit cards were being duplicated. I've also seen a report where more than a dozen other major banks nationwide have announced reissuing of cards.
Every day identity theft is in the news. It is no longer isolated to the big cities, and no one is exempt. This latest breach is on the heels of the previous record breach with TJ Max, and it dwarfs that breach by comparison. What next?
The Kroll Background America Identity Theft Shield that I sell through Pre-Paid Legal Services monitors your credit report and provides licensed investigators to do the heavy lifting of restoring your identity, should it ever be stolen, whether the theft is financial, social security, drivers license, medical, or criminal. Kroll will work with the various agencies to get the databases and records corrected. I believe it is the most comprehensive coverage you can buy. Contact me if you are interested in this service or visit my site http://www.prepaidlegal.com/idt/dkbooth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equifax Provides More Details of Hacked Data

In a recent letter to several congressional committees, Equifax shared that out of the 146+ million records that were hacked in last year's breach: all contained consumers' dates of birth,  nearly all contained Social Security Numbers,  99 million had address information,  209,000 contained credit card data including expiration dates,  38,000 contained driver's license info, 3,200 contained passport information. While some identity fraud incidents have been traced back to the Equifax breach, most of these records have not yet been used in a fraud.  However, since the data is not likely to change (other than credit card info), it is assumed that eventually the stolen information will be sold in the dark web and misused.  Just a matter of time.  My advice: do what you can to minimize your exposure and certainly stay on top of your credit reports, but since things like passports, driver's licenses, and Social Security Numbers can be used in non-financial identity
Read more

Orbitz Reveals Breach Of 880,000

Orbitz, a division of Expedia, has announced it was hacked last October, 2017, revealing credit card information of 880,000 customers, including names, birth dates, mailing and email addresses, dated between January and June, 2016. The current Orbitz website was not hacked, according to the company. One article on the breach: http://www.zdnet.com/article/orbitz-says-hacker-stole-customer-data/
Read more

Should I Be Concerned About Criminal Identity Theft?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've found that most people equate ID theft only with their finances -- their bank and credit accounts.  They don't see a need for paid protection services, relying instead on bank- or card- or insurance-provided free services.  Or they put fraud alerts on their credit report every three months. While useful, these free services rarely look beyond the finances or offer much in the way of restoration.  I advise people to get all of the reliable free coverage they can, but recognize their limitations, and understand that real identity theft is much more than their finances. Take for example something called criminal identity theft.  This is where someone pretends to be someone else, hiding their own identity, when caught in the act of a crime, such as illicit drug dealing or breaking and entering.  Often this is pulled off by first obtaining driver's license info either through direct theft or through a breach and then modifying it with
Read more