Free Monitoring for Buyers, $6.5M for Lawyers in Massive TJX Data Breach Case
A federal judge in Boston has approved $6.5 million in attorneys fees to the lawyers who brought a class action over a massive data breach at TJX Cos. that is estimated to have involved as many as 100 million accounts compromised by computer hackers.
The cost of resolving the breach at the Framingham, Mass.-based retailer was estimated at $256 million at a time when only about 45 million credit and debit card accounts were thought to be implicated.
Plaintiffs lawyers say TJX is providing about $200 million worth of free credit monitoring and other services to customers to settle the case. However, U.S. District Judge William Young questioned in his ruling Monday whether, as the Boston Globe puts it, “consumers really claimed benefits worth that much.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “11 Charged in Biggest ID Theft Case Ever”
Networkworld: “Now we know TJX wasn’t the only screw-up …”
Computerworld: ” N.Y. man indicted for role in data breaches”
