PCWorld - Heartland Payment Systems Inc. last week disclosed that it has so far spent or set aside more than $12.6 million to cover costs related to a major data breach that the credit card payment processor disclosed in January.
The company blamed the breach in part for a loss in its latest quarter.
In a conference call to discuss the company's quarterly results, Heartland CEO Robert Carr said the bulk of the breach costs so far are from a fine imposed by MasterCard Inc. Carr didn't disclose the amount of the fine, estimated at $7 million by Gartner Inc.
Carr added that Heartland plans to appeal the fine. MasterCard claimed that the processor had failed to respond appropriately after it was notified of a potential breach. But Heartland believes that it did respond properly and that "upon discovering the intrusion, it took immediate and extraordinary action to address the intrusion," Carr said. In a statement to Computerworld, Mastercard said that it "believes the fines it imposed were warranted and consistent with its rules."
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