Heartland Pays Amex $3.6 Million Over 2008 Data Breach

Heartland Payment Systems will pay American Express US$3.6 million to settle charges relating to the 2008 hacking of its payment system network.

This is the first settlement Heartland has reached with a card brand since disclosing the incident in January of this year.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Albert Gonzalez and several other accomplices with the hack, saying that Heartland was one of several companies that the hackers managed to break into using SQL injection attacks.

Other alleged victims include 7-Eleven and Hannaford Brothers. In total, the gang managed to steal more than 130 million credit card numbers from Heartland and about 4.2 million from Hannaford, prosecutors allege.

Card-issuing banks such as American Express have had to pay the costs of re-issuing credit cards, following the breach, and many banks have sued Heartland to recover these costs. American Express operates its own credit card brand as well, and the settlement may also cover fines incurred there. pcworld