$18.5 Million
in Total to go to States Following Target Settlement
BATON ROUGE – Attorney General Jeff Landry today announced that Louisiana has joined
with 45 other states and the District of Columbia in the largest multi
state data breach settlement achieved to date.
The settlement, which comes following the investigation into the 2013 data
breach, will give $266,602 to Louisiana.
“I was proud to join this settlement in an effort to ensure the protection of
Louisiana consumers’ personal information,” said General Landry. “My
office will continue our efforts to keep the private information of our State's people from being obtained by cyber criminals."
Through the investigation, it was found that cyber attackers accessed Target's
gateway server through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor. The
credentials were used to allow the attackers to access a customer service
database; to install malware on the system and to capture data, including
consumer data comprised of full names, telephone numbers, email addresses and
mailing addresses; payment card numbers, expiration dates and CVV1 codes; and
encrypted debit PINs.
In addition to the monetary settlement, Target is required to hire an
independent, qualified third-party to conduct a comprehensive security
assessment. They are also required to develop, implement and maintain a
comprehensive information security program and employ an executive or officer
who is responsible for executing the plan.
The breach affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts and the
contact information for more than 60 million customers.
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The states that joined Louisiana in this settlement are: Alaska, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia and the District
of Columbia.