The Heartland Payment Systems Breach (2008)
The Heartland Payment Systems Breach (2008)
The Heartland breach remains one of the most devastating SQL injection attacks in history, compromising 134 million credit card numbers. The attack began with a simple SQL injection vulnerability in a web-facing application, but its impact rippled through the entire payment processing ecosystem.
The attackers used SQL injection to gain initial access, then leveraged this foothold to install packet-sniffing malware on Heartland's network. For months, they captured unencrypted card data as it moved through the payment processing systems. The total cost exceeded $140 million in fines, legal fees, and remediation efforts, not counting the immeasurable reputation damage.
Key lessons from Heartland:
- Network Segmentation: The SQL injection shouldn't have provided access to payment processing systems
- Encryption in Transit: Card data was encrypted at rest but not during processing
- Detection Failures: The breach continued for months without detection
- Compliance vs. Security: PCI compliance didn't prevent the breach
Technical analysis reveals the initial vector was likely a form input that didn't properly sanitize single quotes. This basic vulnerability, probably preventable with parameterized queries, cascaded into one of the largest data breaches in history.