Three men have been indicted in what federal authorities are calling the largest identity theft case ever prosecuted. The three men are accused of hacking into the files of Heartland Payment Systems between October 2006 and May 2008. Heartland processes debit and credit card payment for over a quarter of a million businesses. Some of the breaches occurred at 7-Eleven and Hannaford Brothers and at least 650 financial institutions were affected.

A new data breach discovered by payment processor Heartland Payment Systems may be the largest one ever. The company processes payments for over a quarter of a million businesses and says tens of millions of credit and debit card transactions may have been compromised. Malware was found on its network and officials say it was recording payment data sent to the company from its retail clients. Sensitive information such as credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and names were stolen. While a hacked system at one of its retail clients is likely to blame for the breach, Heartland has refused to name which client it might be or even what retailers may have been affected.