February 20,2009
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News: Notre Dame goes for ‘Safety'; CC, that is.
The ‘fighting Irish' are fighting mad at Princeton. But, football aside, they have another grievance against Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems. At least their credit union, which is the sixth-largest in the nation. Another victim of the Heartland credit card breach, this credit union, like many others around the country is in financial dismay over the compromised data which includes names, PANs (Personal Account Numbers), credit card expiration dates and, most importantly CVV values. CVV codes are excluded from a credit card's magnetic strip because for the heighten security of only being printed on the back of the card (front, in case of AMEX). Having this unique code allows a thief to max out a stolen card without being physically present for transactions. This is much safer for the thief but much more risky for the card holder.
Certainly these credit union members are not alone. Early estimates indicate that 100 million credit card transactions were compromised at Heartland during the month of November. Not accounted for are the 160,000 more transactions that would have taken place before the January 20 announcement of the breach. About 175,000 of Heartland's 250,000 contracted merchants are said to have been affected. This credit card breach has been called the largest ever on record.
To protect their members from additional risk, the Notre Dame Federal Credit Union has blocked the accounts of all cards that reported to have been compromised. New credit cards must now be re-issued for over 2,000 of its members. Even so, for the next few months, members are advised to carefully monitor their accounts online and review their monthly statements carefully. Any suspicious activities found should be reported to the credit union immediately.
The good news (if there is any) is that all of these members are protected by VISA's ‘Zero Liability' policy, which provides credit card holders with no liability for unauthorized purchases in the US. Commercial accounts, Non- VISA ATM or PIN transactions are not covered by this, however. In addition, the credit union will reimburse its member's accounts for the full amount of fraudulent charges on the same day of notification.