Home Depot has agreed to pay $25 million to the financial institutions affected by the massive data breach suffered by the retailer in 2014, when cybercriminals managed to steal email addresses and payment card data belonging to more than 50 million customers.
The retail giant will create a $25 million settlement fund that will be distributed among affected financial institutions.
Organizations that submit claims can receive $2 for each of the payment cards for which they received alerts as a result of the breach, without providing any documentation. Companies that do provide documentation can recover up to 60 percent of losses.
In addition, Home Depot is prepared to pay a total of up to $2.250,000 to sponsored entities whose legal claims against the company were released by their sponsor.
As part of the settlement, Home Depot has also agreed to improve its data security practices in an effort to avoid similar incidents in the future, court documents show.
Fortune reported that the retailer has already paid out more than $134 million to Visa, MasterCard and other financial organizations.
As for the lawsuit filed by affected consumers, Home Depot last year agreed to pay at least $19.5 million to settle charges, including for reimbursements and identity protection services. The total cost of the breach is at least $179 million.
Home Depot’s investigation revealed that cybercriminals had access to the company’s systems between April and September 2014. The attackers used custom-built malware to steal payment cards and other customer data without being detected.
Related: Target Agrees to $10M Settlement of Breach Lawsuit
Related: U.S. Authorities Reach Settlement With Adobe Over 2013 Breach
Related: Western Union Pays $586 Million to Settle Fraud Charges
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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