Heartland Data Breach rears its ugly head again

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Tom Mahoney

As reported here and elsewhere, we know that the Heartland data breach went on for several months and resulted in the neighborhood of 130 Million credit and debit cards being at risk or exposed. I’ve pointed out that once these card numbers are out there, they will probably be used until they expire or they are cancelled. Yesterday’s article in BankInfoSec reminds us that the threat is very real. First National Bank of Durango in Colorado announced that 5,000 debit card customers were at risk.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Albert Gonzalez didn’t stick those 130 million numbers in his pocket and wait for the Feds to break down his door with an arrest warrant. He sold the numbers- probably all 130 million of them. They’re still out there and I’m willing to bet that, now that the heat on Gonzales has cooled a bit, those in possession of the information will start to use it.

And I’m not just picking on Heartland. TJX Companies, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority and Dave & Buster’s were all in the similar time frame and Gonzalez had a hand in all of them. All told, we’re looking at somewhere over 170 million at-risk or exposed accounts. The population of the US is about 308 million so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to say that almost half the population was exposed.

They are still out there, fellow merchants, and the fallout has probably just started.

Be careful, and if you need to learn how to protect yourself, have a look at our webinar

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About Tom Mahoney

Tom Mahoney is the Founder and Director of Merchant911, a site dedicated to helping e-commerce merchants.
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Tom

For those of you who may have come here from https://infosecurity.us/?p=13068 you may have figured out by now that someone over there misread my post. This was NOT another Heartland breach - it was just more aftermath of the big one.

I just want to clarify. Heartland, as far as I know, has NOT been breached again. The 5000 First National Bank of Durango cards that were at risk appear to have been compromised in the Heartland breach announced last year.

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  1. iTrust Blog » Blog Archive » It’s Back! Heartland Data Breach rears its ugly head says:
    March 5, 2010 at 9:57 PM

    [...] Merchant 911, we are reminded of the serious security breach of Heartland 130 Million credit and debit cards [...]

  2. $9.5 Million- a few bucks at a time | Credit Card Information You Need to Know says:
    June 28, 2010 at 9:58 AM

    [...] If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. I promise. Those 170 million card numbers that the Gonzalez gang got is two-thirds of the population of the Unites States. Those card numbers did not go to jail [...]