IMGCAP(1)]
The payments industry is approaching data security with fresh eyes in the aftermath of two large-scale processor breaches at RBS WorldPay and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. Though the payments industry routinely keeps data secure, many key players have increased their awareness of the urgency of staying ahead of crooks bent on illegally accessing their systems, according to one analyst. "I don't think anyone can return to business as usual," says George Peabody, director of emerging technologies advisory service at Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. "The scale and sophistication of these attacks is growing." The breaches at Atlanta-based RBS WorldPay, the U.S. payment-processing arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and at Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland have shown the industry "the extent to which we are all vulnerable," says Peabody. RBS WorldPay announced in December that a breach of its computer system by hackers potentially compromised the personal information of 1.5 million prepaid cardholders and the Social Security numbers of 1.1 million individuals (CardLine, 12/29). Heartland announced in January that hackers breached its processing network in 2008 and captured the credit and debit card numbers and expiration dates of an undisclosed number of cards (CardLine, 1/20).
