January 12, 2015 - Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE:HPY), one of the nation's largest payment processors, today announced it is the first company to offer a comprehensive warranty that protects businesses from payment card breach losses in the event of a breach.

Heartland’s breach warranty is offered at no charge to its Heartland Secure™ merchants in the first year and can be extended for $8.33 per month per card-entry device. To be covered under the warranty, a merchant must have a Heartland Secure-certified device and process payments through Heartland on that device.

Key Highlights/Facts

• Heartland Secure™ is a comprehensive credit/debit card data secure payment solution that combines three powerful technologies – EMV, the Heartland E3® end-to-end encryption technology and tokenization – working in unison to provide merchants with the highest level of protection for card-present transactions.
• Although EMV compliance is not a government or card brand mandate, it is up to the merchant to implement EMV-compliant terminals. Merchants who decide to implement EMV technology will expose their business to fewer disputes over card-acceptance fraud while boosting consumer confidence.
• The breach warranty is straightforward. If the encryption fails on a Heartland Secure machine, Heartland will reimburse the merchant for the amount of compliance fines, fees and/or assessments the merchant must pay to the card brands, issuing banks and acquiring bank(s).
• Encryption is an important part of Heartland Secure™. Small businesses are the new target for cyber criminals. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, 60 percent of breached small businesses go out of business within six months.
• The costs associated with computer and website attacks are well into the thousands and even millions of dollars for a small company, according to the National Small Business Association. The Heartland Secure™ encryption changes card data from the merchant’s POS system and network into meaningless characters, minimizing the chance of that card data being stolen and monetized.

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• Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO, Heartland

“Protecting customers is our number one priority and the breach warranty that we’ve developed will cover a merchant’s breach-related costs in the case of a breach of card numbers. Heartland Secure technology materially reduces the opportunity for criminals to monetize AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encrypted card data.”

“Knowing that cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and small businesses are their new targets, our Heartland breach warranty provides peace of mind. The merchants with Heartland Secure™-certified devices, who are processing with us, are fully protected by the breach warranty.”

• Michael English, executive director, Product Development, Heartland

“Many small business owners aren’t aware of the magnitude of data security breaches or the potential liabilities lurking around the corner. Damage to a company’s reputation can be catastrophic, and the fines can be overwhelming. By combining EMV, encryption and tokenization, Heartland eliminates clear text-card data from the merchant’s point-of-sale system and network. As we have seen in recent breaches at major retailers and restaurants, it is difficult to maintain a secure network. Through encryption and tokenization, a merchant eliminates clear text card data so if their network is breached, there is no card data to steal and monetize.”