Global Payments struggles with public message following breach
Global Payments Inc. of Atlanta, the credit card processing firm that was breached sometime earlier this year, couldn't keep hackers out of its system, but the firm's leaders seem determined to keep the press outside their public relations wall. Since the breach became public March 30, the company has issued a general statement and set up a web page for customers and merchants.
Garcia instead spent most of the conference call in self-congratulatory mode, saying that the company's own security measures detected the breach, that it notified law enforcement and card associations "within hours," and that so far there had been no fraudulent activity on any of the compromised cards.
This, says Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at BT, should be no surprise. "They are going to do what they think is best for the company," he says, acknowledging that trying to block media coverage might not be the best strategy.