Heartland information breach

Heartland payments system is a company which deals with payment information for quite a lot of companies. The recent information breach which occurred at the beginning of last year impacted the largest case of credit cards and debit cards. In this case, very many credit card numbers were exposed from the actions of malicious software which resulted to various people being charged wrongly (bankinfosecurity.com).

According to the magnitude of this case, it was a bit hard to detect the case as the software impeded into the system in a way that could not be detected. It was not until some forensic investigators alerted the management of the activities that were going on and the effect to the MasterCard and debit card holders.

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One of the ways in which a fraudster would have done such an action was through granted access to the information system. In normal circumstances in most institutions, it is quite hard to access an information system belonging to a certain organization unless a person has been granted the rights or has used other means to hack into the system. In the case of Miller, he was able to get into the systems and embezzle funds for the sole reason that he was an employee of the organizations.

In the case of Heartland breach, the management tried to conceal the publicity of the breaching due to losses that were incurred by the over 40,000,000 customers. Before the report, the company had no idea of the software circulating in its network. As a first hand dealing with the case, most details were hidden by the management on how many people were affected and how the software got integrated into its system. As a key option, the company also contacted the intelligence department on the happenings and also the department of justice who were to assist in dealing with the fraudsters (news.cnet.com).

Fraudsters at times have a variety of reasons for embezzling funds from indeterminate companies. One such a reason is greed due to exposure to a weakness by the company at hand. If the company at hand has a weak exposure to its information system, curious individuals tend to take advantage by hacking into the system retrieving most important data in the process. Theses might just be for fun or in other cases like Millers issue or the fraud case at Heartland be in a bid to get funds.

There are various ways and methods in which this matter can be mitigated. A good way to prevent the case is from counterchecking of the credit information in anyone’s card such that any infringement is reported to the necessary authority in due time.  In case a breach is reported, the company should take the corrective measures immediately. Also it is wise for the clients of such a company to place secure alerts on the credit reports so as to hasten the process of detecting fraud and fraudster cases.

Fraud cases like the Heart land case are white collar crimes. At times, it is a bit difficult for the companies involved to report the criminals as in the first place, it exposes the company. Any such kind of exposure might ruin the business of the involved company. On the other hand, the criminals involved can assist the authority in uncovering the weak points of their information systems thus helping to control future breach of the system (cbsnews.com).

As much as this might have been the case, fraudsters like Miller who tend to be pathological criminals should be punished for such crimes as check counterfeiting by being subjected to jail terms and being forced to pay for their actions. They can also be used to unearth the weak points in the security system having succeeded in duping more than one company.

References

Bank info security, Heartland Breach. Retrieved 19^th July, 2010 from                 http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/heartland_breach.php

Bashi, A (2009), USPS Probes Security Breach. Retrieved 19^th July, 2010 from             http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/01/cbsnews_investigates/main4982989.shtml

Mills, E (2009), Payment processor Heartland reports breach. Retrieved 19^th July, 2010 from             http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10146275-83.html

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