Network Breach in Credit card processors warns : Heartland

Credit and debit card transaction processing company  Heartland Payment System warned that it had found evidence of a network breach that had compromised consumers’ credit-card numbers. Heartland Payment System Credit and debit card transaction processing  company serving more than 250,000 customers worldwide.

A week back auditors hired by the company found malicious software on its payment network.  Visa and Mastercard had tipped off the company to fraudulent card activity related to credit-card transactions processed on Heartland’s network. Heartland said that it taken severe steps towards the fradulent actions & said it had secured their customers.  Moreover Heartland has launched a website called 2008breach.com as the communication point for its affected customers.

“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,” Robert H.B. Baldwin, Jr., Heartland’s president and chief financial officer, said in a statement.

This is not the first time. In 2005 criminals had access to the network of CardSystems Solutions, which affected more than 40 million credit card accounts.

Heartland pledged to add more security to its network, promising to “implement a next-generation program designed to flag network anomalies in real-time and enable law enforcement to expeditiously apprehend cyber criminals,” the firm said.