SEC and FTC investigating data theft

The FTC and SEC, along with several other federal agencies, are investigating the data breach at Heartland Payment Systems. The company processes about 100 million credit card transactions a month. Over 250,000 merchant locations were affected by the breach, which involved hackers stealing unencrypted data such as addresses, debit, and credit card numbers, and expiration dates. The company has also been hit with a class action lawsuit.

Company President and Chief Financial Officer Robert Baldwin Jr. disclosed the investigations during Heartland’s quarterly conference call with investigators Tuesday, saying that the SEC had launched an informal inquiry into the company and that there is also a related investigation by the Department of Justice. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates national banks and their service providers, has launched an inquiry, as has the FTC, he said.

As the company is refusing to disclose the names of the retailers it processes payments for, it would be wise to keep an eye on your accounts-and your mail. You may be affected and not realize it. I was! I got a new debit card in the mail from HSBC today. I was rather puzzled until I found a letter explaining they were reissuing all their bank cards with new account numbers after being notified of the breach by Mastercard. Kudos to HSBC for looking out for its customers!

An important note: Don’t just be on the alert for suspiciously large charges on your account. Scrutinize any small ones too, because hackers commonly test accounts by making tiny charges of a dollar or two before making a large hit!

Read[PCWorld]