Target, security auditor Trustwave are sued over data breach

by. Jonathan Stempel

Target Corp and Trustwave Holdings Inc, which provides credit card security services, have been sued by two banks for “monumental” losses they say card issuers will face because of the retailer’s holiday season data breach.

In a complaint filed on Monday in Chicago federal court, Trustmark National Bank and Green Bank NA accused the defendants of failing to properly secure customer data, enabling the theft of about 40 million payment card records plus 70 million other records, including addresses and phone numbers.

The banks said they lost money from alerting customers to the breach, reimbursing fraudulent charges and reissuing cards. These losses could increase, they said, if criminals ultimately use several million stolen cards as some analysts project.

While the complaint seeks unspecified damages of at least $5 million, New York-based Trustmark and Houston-based Green Bank said losses could top $1 billion for card issuers they hope to represent in a class action, and $18 billion for banks and retailers combined.

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