Fergie's Tech Blog

Retrospect: The TJX Effect

Larry Greenemeier writes on InformationWeek:

TJX will be glad when this year is over. The $17 billion-a-year parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, and several other discount retail chains has spent the past eight months dealing with the largest breach of customer data in U.S. history, the details of which are starting to come to light.

Last December, TJX says it alerted law enforcement that data thieves had made off with more than 45 million customer records. Since that time, at least one business, Wal-Mart, has lost millions of dollars as a result of the theft, while TJX has spent more than $20 million investigating the breach, notifying customers, and hiring lawyers to handle dozens of lawsuits from customers and financial institutions. Should TJX lose in the courts, it could be on the hook for millions more in damages.

But there's an even broader TJX Effect: The data breach, which actually took place over a period of years, has put the entire retail industry on the defensive and stirred up demands for all businesses that handle payment card information to do a better job of protecting it. Legislators are invoking TJX's name to fast-track data-security bills.

posted by Fergie @ 8/10/2007 09:46:00 PM