Heartland plans aggressive encryption system

Heartland Payment Systems revealed last week that a security breach has cost it more than $12 million so far. And, so this doesn't happen again, the company which processes credit cards, debit cards and payroll, is planning to create an end-to-end encryption system to protect its network, according to an article from NetworkWorld.

"We are in a cybercrime arms race," said Bob Carr, Heartland's chair and CEO, in explaining why Heartland intends to deploy the custom-built encryption equipment.

In a conference call detailing Heartland's financial earnings, Carr said the breach has been a heavy financial burden. He said it remains unclear what the total cost will be when everything is sorted out. Heartland is a huge player in the credit card business. It processes about 100 million card transactions each month, and it's not clear how much fraud cyber criminals were able to commit when they hacked into the company's system.

Heartland is planning to roll out its encryption system with its merchants beginning this summer, according to Carr. Heartland "is basically leading the way for the rest of the industry," Gartner analyst Avivah Litan, told NetworkWorld. He said the plan for end-to-end encryption will be the first of its kind in the United States.

For more on Heartland's security plans:
- check out this NetworkWorld.com article

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