Heartland Payment Systems, the card processor with the 2008 breach that may turn out to have been the biggest card data security compromise in history, has threatened to sue competing processors seeking to lure its merchant clients away because of the breach.

In a message on a Web site devoted to the breach, (http://www.2008breach.com/) Heartland CEO Robert Carr said the processor has sent cease and desist letters to rival processors which, he said, have made "untrue and misleading claims" about the possibility that Visa might fine merchants which continue to process with Heartland after Visa removed the card processor from its list of PCI compliant processors.

Visa has said that it would not fine merchants who continue to process with Heartland and that the card processor is working toward being compliant with the data security standard again. "Heartland intends to initiate legal action against [the other processors] if they do not immediately stop making these claims," Carr wrote.

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