Update on the national Heartland Payment Services data intrusion

Date: February 9th, 2009 - Author: University Credit Union

The Maine Credit Union League reports that its member credit unions have joined other financial institutions in Maine in assessing the impact as the result a security breach that occurred through Heartland Payment Systems, a third-party card processor used by 250,000 merchants nationwide and based in Princeton, N.J. The League said that MasterCard and Visa investigations continue into this matter; however, the information received states that this processor had magnetic stripe data compromised by malicious software between the dates of May 16, 2008 and August 19, 2008, and has affected banks and credit unions.

Update on the national Heartland Payment Services data intrusion

University Credit Union is continuing to receive lists of potentially affected accounts from VISA at this time however, it is still unknown how many accounts have actually been compromised with this data breach. The only information that was identified at risk with this breach was the debit card information and no other personal information such as social security numbers, date of birth or checking account information was compromised.

Since the last significant compromise in March of 2008 involving Hannaford which affected thousands of UCU members, we have made several enhancements in our fraud monitoring software and processes and at this time, are continuing to monitor for fraudulent or suspicious activity associated with this latest breach.   We ask that our members continue to review their accounts periodically and ensure that any identified fraud is reported to the credit union. To date, University Credit Union has not identified any activity that indicates that these accounts associated with the latest breach are being used fraudulently. At this time, we do not believe reissuing cards is necessary but we will continue to monitor the situation and will reissue cards if we believe it warrants us to do so.

As an additional reminder, members have no liability and are not responsible for reported unauthorized transactions that occur on their VISA Debit Cards.   If you have additional questions about this breach or your debit card, please visit your local branch or contact us at 1-800-696-8628 to have all of your questions answered. 

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