If Approved, Target Settlement Opens the Door to Big Payouts

Still haven’t put in those security measures to protect your clients’ personal information? What if a data breach cost $10,000 per person? Target suffered one of the largest data breaches in history in 2013 when the credit card information for 40 million shoppers, and the personal information of 70 million shoppers was stolen.

Now they are settling a class action for $10m. The settlement would provide compensation of up to $10,000 for shoppers who show they suffered damages from the breach.

This is a useful number to consider. If you think it’s too expensive or a hassle to improve your security, try counting up customers you have personal information for. Then multiply that by $10,000. That is your potential liability if your company’s data is stolen.

Odds are, that amount is much higher than the cost of encryption or improved security.

Washington Post – Target data breach victims could get up to $10,000 each from court settlement