President Barack Obama and the massive Heartland Payment Systems data breach have one thing in common.  They both became official on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. 

The 20th of January was the day the president was inaugurated and the day Heartland – in a pathetically obvious attempt to hide behind the news of the inauguration – announced the largest data breach in history.

But, that is where the similarities end.

While President Obama continues to revel in the adulation of a fawning press, Heartland’s inability to thwart the hackers who planted malware in order to steal valuable credit card information from millions of Americans has been – for the most part – ignored by the national media.

While there have been dozens of articles written by small town and regional publications across the country about the hundreds of banks and credit unions that are replacing customer credit and debit cards because of the data breach, the national print and television media have paid almost no attention to the scope of the crisis.

Even more troubling is the lack of inquiry by the media into the genesis of the breach and the degree to which other payment processors may also be at risk.

The inescapable conclusion is that with the majority of the media so focused on our newly minted president and the global economic recession, there has never been a better time for cybercriminals to ply their trade.  I suspect the Heartland security breach will not be the last significant cybercrime we learn of that benefited from the media’s self-induced distraction.

Bottom line:  If you’re an identity thief, hacker or any other form of cybercriminal, this is the perfect time to strike the United States as no one is minding the store.