Heartland Payment Systems Compromised Cards
On January 20, 2009 WyHy was made aware that Heartland Payment Systems (third-party processor) had a
breach in its processing systems in 2008. The breach exposed an undetermined number of consumers
who use debit and credit cards to potential fraud. Heartland confirmed that card numbers, expiration
dates, and some cardholder names were in fact compromised in this breach. Heartland processes
payments for more than 250,000 businesses.
WyHy has received five notifications from Visa USA regarding this compromise; there were 2,109 WyHy
debit cardholders who were listed on the five notifications. Letters were mailed to only the
members who were affected and were given instructions to notify or come in to the Credit Union to
have their debit card destroyed and receive a replacement card.
The Credit Union's policy for this type of notification is to block our member's card to protect
them and the Credit Union from any possible use of their card number in the future. Typically,
banks will block the card and then send their customer a letter stating the card was blocked and
that a new card will be mailed to them. This takes anywhere from 12 - 14 days. WyHy
has been able to utilize the Instant Card Issue machine in both Service Centers to allow our
members to have a new debit card ready for use immediately upon their departure from the Credit
Union. As of February 27, 2009, the Cheyenne Service Center has instant issued 1,379 debit
cards and the Casper Service Center has instant issued 1087 debit cards.
Protect your identity with WyHy's assistance. Utilize the ID Safe Choice, e-Alerts, eStatements,
online banking, TRUEcredit and Document Destruction Days. Deter. Detect. Defend.
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