Merchants' Desire to Protect Customer and Personal Security is Catalyst to Implement Heartland Secure™

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Since its May launch, merchants across the country have been stepping up their security measures and implementing Heartland Secure™, a comprehensive credit/debit card data security solution that combines three powerful technologies working in tandem to provide the highest level of protection available against card-present data fraud.

“With the rise of cyber attacks this year and the looming EMV liability shift, merchants are looking for a security solution that will protect them from sophisticated cyber criminals, which is why we created Heartland Secure™,” said Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, HPY, the nation's 5^th largest payment processor. “While the FBI has forecasted that we will surpass the number of breaches in 2013, Heartland is trying to do its part to protect our merchants from data security incidents.”

Carr and a team of Heartland executives will be at booth 209 at Money 20/20, Nov. 2-5 at the Aria in Las Vegas to provide more information about Heartland Secure™. Carr and John South, Heartland's chief security officer, will also talk about the security solution in their respective panels – “Major Processor Presidents and CEOs on Acquiring and Issuing Innovation” from 11:25 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. PST, Nov. 5 and “Merchants, Law Enforcement & Cross-Industry Remedies for Cybercrime” from 2:00 to 2:45 p.m. PST, also on Nov. 5.

Featuring a breach warranty, Heartland Secure™ is an innovative solution designed to provide merchants with protection against point-of-sale (POS) intrusions, crimeware, miscellaneous errors, insider misuse and other common sources of card-present data fraud by eliminating the opportunity for criminals to monetize card data.

Offered to Heartland customers for no additional processing fees as part of Heartland's comprehensive solutions, Heartland Secure™ combines:

• EMV electronic chip card technology to prove that a consumer's card is genuine.
• Heartland's E3^® end-to-end encryption technology, which immediately encrypts card data as it is entered so that no one else can read it.
• Tokenization technology, which replaces card data with “tokens” that can be used for returns and repeat purchases, but are unusable by outsiders because they have no value.

Some of Heartland's merchants who are now Heartland Secure™ include Skyline College in San Bruno, Calif.; Canada College in Redwood City, Calif., Charlotte Jones Opticians in New York, NY; D & D Floor Covering in Van Buren, Ark. and the Animal Hospital of Ivy Square in Charlottesville, Va.

Michael Bugalski, owner of Avenue Wine and Liquor in Milwaukee, Wis., said he switched over to the EMV terminals that are Heartland Secure™ three months ago because he wants to protect himself and his customers.

“Our customers mean a lot to us. The ordeal of having to cancel and get new credit cards is a hassle and we don't want our customers to have to go through that because of something we did – or didn't do. With all of the security breaches that are reported, it seems easy for a hacker to get into your system. We didn't want to be unprotected or put our customers at risk,” Bugalski said.

Security breaches against large retailers like Target and Neiman-Marcus get most of the publicity, but there were more than 679 data security incidents reported in the retail and accommodation merchant sectors in 2013, and 285 of them involved confirmed data losses. Unfortunately, the real breach numbers may be much higher, and the FBI believes we can expect more credit card breaches in the US.

In January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent a confidential, three-page report to retail companies warning them to prepare for more cyber attacks based on their discovery of roughly 20 hacking cases that involved the same type of malicious software used against Target last December. The FBI cited the accessibility and affordability of malware on underground forums and the huge potential profits to be made from retail POS systems in the United States as factors that make this type of cyber crime attractive to a wide range of cyber criminals.¹

Based on data provided by the Open Security Foundation and RiskBased Security, the Online Trust Alliance's (OTA) 2014 Data Protection and Breach Readiness Guide² states that more than 823 million records were exposed in 2013, including credit card numbers, email addresses, log in credentials, social security numbers and other related personal information. OTA estimates that 37 percent of these breaches were the result of actual hacks, and another 31 percent were due to lack of internal controls, which enabled accidental or malicious events.

“Most small businesses simply aren't aware of the extent of data security breaches, or the potential liabilities,” said Michael English, executive director, Product Development, for Heartland Payment Systems, who will also be at Money 20/20. “Damage to brand reputation can be devastating, and the fines can be astronomical if a company is out of compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS). One large retailer was assessed more than $10 million in fines for a 2010 network intrusion, and more than one small company has gone out of business facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.”

1. Exclusive: FBI warns retailers to expect more credit card breaches http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/us-target-databreach-fbi-idUSBREA0M1UF20140124

2. OTA 2014 Data Protection and Breach Readiness Guide https://otalliance.org/resources/incident/2014OTADataBreachGuide.pdf

About Heartland Payment Systems

Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. HPY, the fifth largest payments processor in the United States, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, point of sale, mobile commerce, e-commerce, marketing solutions, security technology, payroll solutions, and related business solutions and services to more than 300,000 business and educational locations nationwide. A FORTUNE 1000 company, Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. Heartland also established The Sales Professional Bill of Rights to advocate for the rights of sales professionals everywhere. More detailed information can be found at HeartlandPaymentSystems.com. Follow the company on Twitter @HeartlandHPY and on Facebook at facebook.com/HeartlandHPY.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature which represent our management's beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are based on information currently available to us. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to many factors, including risks and additional factors that are described in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013. Given these risks and uncertainties, prospective and current investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.