Hackers strike again!  On Tuesday, Heartland Payment Systems disclosed that in late 2008, intruders managed to hack into the computers it uses to process 100 million payment card transactions per month (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/hacking/2009-01-20-heartland-credit-card-security-breach_N.htm).

The data-theft program used was so sophisticated that it went undetected for quite some time (longer than weeks) and was only discovered when Visa and MasterCard notified the company of suspicious transactions stemming from accounts links to its systems.

There has been a double-digit increase in the theft of credit card numbers over the last few years.  Unfortunately, this is a trend that will most likely continue.  The only real way that consumers can protect themselves is to frequently review their credit card statements (most are available online now) and keep an eye out for any suspicious transactions.