ASK THE EXPERTS: Preventing card data breaches

ASK THE EXPERTS: Preventing card data breaches
Tags: Security Systems, Software, Systems / Technology
February 26, 2009

In late October, Heartland Payment Systems, a Princeton, N.J.-based company that provides payment processing for roughly 200,000 U.S. businesses, was contacted by Visa and MasterCard about reports of fraudulent activity taking place on cards it had processed. A forensic examination revealed vicious malware on the company's server that was recording private cardholder data, and presumably transmitting it to a third party.

In light of this and other cases, such as the infamous T.J. Maxx breach, we asked David Shackleford, chief security officer at Configuresoft Inc., what are the responsibilities of consumers and the card associations when it comes to preventing major card data breaches?