The company that processes credit card transactions for more than 250,000 businesses has uncovered a massive security breach in which malicious software was discovered in its processing system. Initial reports have indicated that Canadian merchants are not affected, but customers who have used their credit cards while travelling to the United States should check their credit card statements.
Heartland Payment Systems, the company involved, discovered the intrusion last week and immediately notified authorities and the credit card companies of the incident. The security breach did not affect social security numbers, unecrypted personal identification numbers, addresses or telephone numbers of the credit card holders. It also did not affect the merchant data.
Initial investigations indicate that the attack on this credit card processing company may be the largest every committed and may affect other companies. Heartland Payment Systems processes approximately 100 million credit card transactions per month, making this security breach the largest credit card fraud online ever.
Credit card customers are asked to check their statements and report any suspicious activity that may appear on their credit statements.
