Massive credit card breach

On Tuesday, one of the busiest news days of the year, Heartland Payment quietly released a statement declaring the company's card processing system had been hacked.

Since the company handles more than 100 million credit card transactions monthly serving more than 250,000 businesses ranging from restaurants to retailers to payroll systems, chances are someone in every state is affected by this major data loss.

According to the New York Times , data thieves introduced the Heartland malware as early as May, and Heartland didn't open its eyes until late fall 2008. Then Heartland chose inauguration day to make its announcement.

We would recommend that everyone inspect their free credit card report at the Annual Credit Report site.

Read the Times report here.