Home Depot hit with “at least 44 civil lawsuits” due to data breach

Home Depot announced that it is facing “at least 44 civil lawsuits” in the United States and Canada stemming from 56 million customers' data being stolen and exposed earlier this year.

According to the disclosure, which was published Tuesday as part of the company’s quarterly earnings report, “We are also facing investigations by a number of state and federal agencies. These claims and investigations may adversely affect how we operate our business, divert the attention of management from the operation of the business, and result in additional costs and fines.”

One of the lawsuits, a proposed class-action suit filed in late September in federal court in San Francisco, alleged that Home Depot “failed to properly encrypt its customers’ data in violation of the [Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard].” That same month, former Home Depot security employees told The New York Times that the company repeatedly ignored warnings and undertook poor security for years.

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