Fergie's Tech Blog

Heartland Breach Expenses Pegged at $140M - So Far

Jaikumar Vijayan writes on ComputerWorld:

The costs to Heartland Payment Systems Inc. from the massive data breach that it disclosed in January 2009 appear to be steadily adding up.

Quarterly financial results released by Heartland last week show that the card payment processor has accrued $139.4 million in breach-related expenses. The figure includes a settlement totaling nearly $60 million with Visa, another of about $3.5 million with American Express and more than $26 million in legal fees.

That total also includes $42.8 million that Heartland has set aside to fund proposed settlements with several other litigants over the breach. One example of what the fund is set up for is Heartland's offer to settle several consumer class action lawsuits against it for $4 million.

So far, Heartland has recovered about $30 million from insurance companies. Even with the updated figures, Heartland so far has spent considerably less than the staggering $250 million that TJX Companies Inc. estimated it would eventually spend to address its massive 2006 data breach.

posted by Fergie @ 5/10/2010 04:47:00 PM