Breach info sharing gets underway

There are times when companies are better off working together; for example, when it comes to technical standards and the like. So, what to make of the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council? The PPISC is certainly not a media-genic acronym--something about the PP part. But it certainly has worthy goal. Why not band all companies together to share information about data breaches and anti-ID-theft methods?

The group is the brainchild of Robert O. Carr, the CEO of Heartland Payments Systems, which suffered a huge breach in January. Bank Technology News notes that roughly 30 people from 19 companies attended the initial meeting. The group's first agenda item was to "distribute copies of the 14 pieces of malware that Heartland found on its systems after the breach, along with software to detect the malware, courtesy of forensics investigative company Mandiant." The malware has reportedly been used against other processors. Heartland Payments' big breach has cost it $13 million so far. Info sharing will be systematic in the future, and regular conference calls will be made. It does not plan to challenge the PCI-DSS. 

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