Target settles credit card data breach case for $18.5 million

$18.5 million settlement with Target in response to allegations that more than 40 million customers had their payment card information compromised during the 2013 holiday season, after the retailer failed to provide reasonable data security. California will receive more than $1.4 million – the largest share of any state – from the settlement, which also requires Target to:

• Adopt advanced measures to secure customer information
• Employ an executive to oversee a comprehensive information security program
• Encrypt or otherwise protect payment card information to make it useless if stolen
• Integrate business practices recommended in the Attorney General’s Data Breach Reports previously published by the California Department of Justice

“Families should be able to shop without worrying that their financial information is going to get stolen, and Target failed to provide this security,” Attorney General Becerra stated. “This should send a strong message to other companies: you are responsible for protecting your customers’ personal information. Not just sometimes – always.” Attorney General Becerra is committed to protecting consumers. Since taking office in January 2017, he has announced a $586 million multi-state settlement with Western Union for wire fraud scams; a $9.8 million settlement with Walgreens for failing to adhere fully to requirements imposed by California law for the dispensing of certain prescriptions drugs under Medi‑Cal; a five-year prison sentence for Oswaldo Cabrera of Coalición Latinoamericana Internacional for defrauding immigrants; opposed actions by the Trump administration to roll back important protections for student loan borrowers and working families saving for retirement; and joined a federal antitrust lawsuit with 39 other states charging six generic drug-makers with an illegal conspiracy to divide customers and markets and increase prices for two generic drugs.]]>