Heartland to pay up to $60M for Visa data breach

Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a New Jersey-based payments processor, has agreed to pay up to roughly $60 million to cover losses caused to Visa Inc. credit and debit cardholders as a result of a huge 2008 security breach, the companies have announced.

The settlement agreement is contingent upon acceptance by financial institutions representing 80 percent of the eligible issuers' U.S. accounts that Visa says were put at risk during the Heartland intrusion, which Heartland disclosed in January 2009 had exposed more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers.
 bizjournals