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Visa Inc. reportedly has placed Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on probation because of a breach the processor disclosed in January that affected an undetermined number of payment card accounts, according to media reports. Under the terms of the probation, besides removing Heartland from the list of providers compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Visa also reportedly is subjecting the processor to more-stringent security assessments, monitoring and reporting; is levying fines to Heartland's sponsoring banks; and is giving issuers until May 19 to report fraud losses to Visa related to the Heartland breach, according to reports. Neither Visa nor Heartland would comment specifically about Heartland's alleged probation status. Visa on Thursday posted on its Web site an updated list of PCI-compliant service providers that does not include Heartland or RBS WorldPay, which disclosed its own data breach in December. A Visa spokesperson would not state what, outside from being removed from the list of compliant providers, may be happening to the two companies. RBS WorldPay had no comment regarding the potential for Visa to place the company on probation, which would include sanctions in addition to the processor's removal from Visa's list of certified providers.
