Computerworld - TJX Companies Inc. has agreed to pay $525,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by several banks in connection with the massive data breach disclosed by the retailer in January 2007.
The money will reimburse AmeriFirst Bank, HarborOne Credit Union, SELCO Community Credit Union, and Trustco Bank a portion of the expenses they incurred in connection with the breach, TJX said in a statement. As part of the agreement, the banks will drop all other claims against TJX. The discount retailer admit no wrongdoing.
The settlement money is part of the $118 million the company had set aside in the second quarter of 2007 to cover breach related costs.
In January 2007, TJX, based in Framingham, Mass.-based, disclosed that unknown intruders had broken into its network and stolen data on more than 45 million credit and debit cards. At that time, the breach was considered the biggest ever involving payment card data.
Since then a breach at Heartland Payment Systems, which resulted in the compromise of an estimated 100 million cards. Even so, the TJX incidnet remains one of the costliest breaches on record.
The latest settlement is one of several others that TJX has entered into since the breach. In June, TJX said it would pay nearly $10 million to settle lawsuits filed brought by attorneys general in 41 states. Under that agreement, TJX also agreed to implement measures for boosting security around card holder data. In November 2007, the company announced it would pay up to $40.9 million to Visa USA Inc. card issuers who may have been affected by the breach.
Soon after the breach, the company said it expected to spend in the range of $150 million on various items including lawsuit settlements. Some analysts said that figure might be closer to $200 million, with one Forrester Reseach analyst predicting it could reach $1 billion over the next several years.
Last week, Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami agreed to plead guilty to masterminding the attacks on TJX and several other retailers including Dave & Busters, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW. He faces between 15 and 25 years in prison.
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