Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

As the lawsuits involving Heartland’s massive data breach move through the court system, an unusual claim was inserted into a court filing. The September 23 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas was trying to raise questions about Heartland’s post-breach conduct. It then shared the following anecdote without further explanation.

“On the day after the data breach, Heartland conducted a Webinar about the data breach for its high-level employees, sales representatives and/or relationship managers. Upon information and belief, Heartland relationship managers were told that PCI compliance was not a big deal. One of Heartland’s relationship managers resigned on or around April 23, 2009, in part because of Heartland’s statements regarding its PCI compliance. A Referee’s Decision in a Delaware Department of Labor proceeding reached the conclusion that this relationship manager had ‘good cause’ to leave her position at Heartland based, in part, on Heartland’s conduct.” That might prove quite significant, or it could be an irrelevant red herring. Either way, it’s not the kind of detail we see very often.