Heartland Payment Systems to pay Discover Financial $5 million in deal on 2008 data breach

Heartland to pay Discover $5M for 2008 data breach

PRINCETON, N.J. — Payments processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Wednesday said it will pay $5 million to Discover Financial Services Co. to resolve issues between the companies related to a 2008 data breach.

Hackers installed spying software on Heartland’s computer network in 2008, giving them access to data including account numbers, expiration dates and in some cases customer names on the systems that process Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card transactions. The company revealed the problem in January 2009.

Heartland said Wednesday the deal with Discover marks its final agreement with a card brand related to the incident.

According to a recent regulatory filing, Heartland had previously reached breach-related settlements totaling $114.7 million. That included a $3.5 million payment to American Express, $59.3 million in payments to Visa and several banks, and $41.4 million to MasterCard Worldwide.

Heartland shares closed Wednesday trading up 69 cents, or 4.9 percent, at $14.84. Discover shares ended the session up 65 cents, or 4.5 percent, at $15.16.