Global Payments: Data Breach Cost Nearly $85 Million

Global Payments, Inc., the payment processing firm that disclosed a data breach back in late March, which the company ultimately said could have exposed up to 1.5 million card numbers, has shared details on the total cost of the incident so far.

According to a July 26 statement issued by the company, one of the world’s largest electronic transaction processing providers, the cost of the security incident is pegged at $84.4 million.

“With the completion of our data intrusion investigation, GAAP results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2012 include a pre-tax charge of $84.4 million or $0.68 diluted earnings per share,” the statement read. “This charge includes an estimate of charges from the card brands and investigation and remediation expenses.”

As a result of the breach, the company was removed from multiple card brands including Visa and MasterCard’s list of approved service vendors, something the company is looking to fix. “A qualified security assessor is conducting the independent review required to return the company to the lists of PCI compliant service providers,” the company said.

The company has maintained its claims that only Track 2 card data may have been stolen, and that cardholder names, addresses and social security numbers were not obtained by the criminals.

Related Reading: If PCI Is Your Whole Security Program, You’re Not Doing Your Job Right