7. Heartland Payment Systems
When: 2008-2009
Number of accounts affected: 130 million
Heartland Payment Systems ranks 7th in our ist of biggest data breaches of all time. It is, as the name suggests, a payment processing company based in New Jersey. It was in 2009 that the company announced it had suffered a data breach that affected some 130 million credit and debit cards pertaining to over 100 million people. It all happened with the “help” of some well-planted malware on the company’s network which recorded card data as if arrived from retailers. The mastermind behind the attack was convicted back in 2010 for what was at the time the largest data breach on an American company. He is serving 20 years in prison.
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The company’s stock took a dip after the announcement, and it took a while to recover. In December 2015, Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) announced that it would acquire Heartland Payment Systems for $3.50 billion. The transaction was completed in April this year.
