Heartland Data Breach Affecting More Than 150 Banks

A data breach last month disclosed by Heartland Payment Systems Inc. now includes more than 150 banks being affected.

Some of the banks included in the Heartland data breach are located in 40 states as well as Bermuda, Canada and Guam. This information was explained by BankInfoSecurity.com’s news portal.

With today’s day and age of hackers breaching big companies and the economy slump, it only adds to the rate that we will see systems being compromised or attacked by cyber thieves. Hackers are hurting due to the economy also just like the common working force around the world which only makes matters worse when it comes to online security.

BankInfoSecurity.com has posted the names of 157 banking institutions that have publicly disclosed to customers that they were victimized from the Heartland breach. Heartland is a large payment processor located in Princeton, NJ.

What does this breach mean?

Most of the banks of the list of being breached are smaller institutions and only a few larger banks. A small percentage, around 33%, of the banks may have had credit and debt card information compromised during this initial Heartland breach. The total number of cards compromised may be around 300,000 which is an alarming number considering this information could be in the hands of hackers who are looking for monetary gain which is the ultimate purpose of the breach being initiated. As you may know with credit and debit card information in the wrong hands it could lead to mass amounts of money being lost by many customers of these institutions.

The Heartland breach already lead to a class-action lawsuit filed against the company which may be a result of intruders breaking into the system sometime last year where it went undetected for a long time. It seems Heartland may have failed to take the necessary precautions. The details of the older breach have not been publicly disclosed.

What can you do to protect yourself in spite of an unfortunate breach happening to your financial institution?

One thing that can be done is closely monitor your accounts. Many companies offer credit monitoring services which may include a multitude of features that monitor your banking activity. This is a good preventative measure to proactively stay ahead of the cybercriminal game.