Back in 2014, Home Depot was hacked in which more than 50 million credit cards on file were compromised. So far we haven’t really heard of any reports of credit cards going on rogue spending sprees since the hack, which we guess we’re thankful for, but either way the inconvenience to customers and the loss of confidence is a price that Home Depot had to pay.
In fact that price has recently been revealed to be $19 million as the company has offered that amount as settlement to customers who were affected by the hack. To be more specific, the settlement amount is $19.5 million, $13 million of which will go towards setting up a fund that will compensate customers for out-of-pocket expenses like a reasonably traceable fraud as a result of the hack.
The remaining money will then go towards legal fees and any other associated expenses. According to Stephen Holmes, a Home Depot spokesman, “We’re working to put the litigation behind us, and this was the most expeditious path.” Unfortunately this settlement will only cover Home Depot’s customers.
Any other expenses that might arise as a result of litigation from financial institutions like banks or credit card companies will not be covered by the $19.5 million. The company has also since promised to adopt new data security measures to ensure that this will never happen again.