News

Heartland says security breach cost the company $12.6 million

August 10, 2009

The Heartland Payment Systems Inc. card breach thathit countless U.S. cardholders in February wound up costing the nation's sixth-largest payment processor $12.6 million. Bank Info Security reports that Heartland, in its most recent earnings report, reported a net loss of $2.6 million, or 7 cents per share, compared with a profit of $11.5 million, or 30 cents per share, for the same period a year earlier.

Bank Info Security says Heartland's $12.6 million expense related to its non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard:

In Heartland's first-quarter earnings call in May, company officials said last year's well-publicized data breach has cost $12.6 million. The amount includes legal costs and fines from Visa and MasterCard, both of which have stated the payment processor wasn't compliant with PCI standards at the time of the breach. Visa had taken Heartland off of its preferred payment processor list earlier in March after the breach was made public on January 20.