Two U.S. banks that sued Target and credit card security firm Trustwave Holdings, Inc., over responsibility for
one of the largest data breaches in history have dropped their lawsuits. Both Trustmark National Bank, out of
New York, and Houston-based Green BankNA filed dismissals without prejudice to
re-filing on Friday and Monday in Federal court in Chicago.
The lawsuits
accused Target and Trustwave of failing to properly secure customer data,
leading to the theft of about 40 million payment card records and 70 million
other records during last year's holiday shopping season. See my previous blog
posts for more information on that story.
Trustwave’s position
was that Target did not outsource data security to its Chicago-based company,
and that Trustwave did not monitor Target's network or process its cardholder
data. Agreements and associations between information technology services
companies and retailers are often kept confidential, and neither Target nor
Trustwave would confirm whether the companies have been partners.
The breach has
cost banks millions of dollars in order to correct fraudulent charges and
reissue cards. The breach could cost the banking industry more than $1 billion. It has also been reported that Target is offering free credit monitoring to any of its customers, however the program is limited to just one of the three credit reporting agencies.
