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US credit-card firm hit by crooks

ID theft concerns have emerged following revelations that a major US credit-card processing company was compromised by cyber crooks who managed to access its payment processing network.

Heartland Payment Systems admitted on Tuesday (January 20th) that the crooks compromised the online security of its systems in 2008 leaving card holders open to ID fraud.

However, the company said any losses incurred by victims as a result of the breach, said to have been perpetuated through some sophisticated spyware, will not be the responsibility of the victims.

"This is a very sophisticated attack," explained the company's chief financial officer Robert Baldwin.

"Our discussions with the Secret Service and Department of Justice give us a pretty good indication that this is part of a group that appears to have done security breaches at other financial institutions."

Following the breach, the company set up a special website aimed at giving people more information about the incident.

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