Monday 16 February 2009

Heartland Payment Systems Breach Update

A little while back, we posted about a breach of significant proportions at a credit card payment processor by the name of Heartland Payment Systems (previous blog post).

Here are some updates to the ongoing saga at Heartland:

We now have two known major breaches in recent memory with the TJ Maxx breach and now the Heartland Payment Systems breach.

The cost to us consumers as well as institutions that provide and service credit cards in this case has been and will be huge.

The catch is, how many more breaches of this magnitude need to happen before we consumers can be confident that the system is working at being reasonably protected?

Certainly the TJ Maxx and Heartland breaches do not inspire confidence in the way our data is being handled by companies that do so at this point.

As a result, it is ultimately our responsibility to keep an eye on our credit profiles, our credit card and debit card statements, and our online purchasing identities such as our PayPal or eBay accounts.

We are our only first line of defense.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac!

Windows Live Writer

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