CU Bills TJ Maxx For Breach

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - TJX Companies, still coping with the aftermath of one of the biggest data security breaches ever, got a bill in the mail last week from one of its victims-a $590,000 invoice from HarborOne CU.

"We sent them a bill," said Jim Blake, president of the $1.4-billion CU who is pushing for credit unions to join the class action suit against the retailing giant. The costs borne by the CU, according to the bill, were about $90,000 to notify members of the threat to their accounts and to cancel, then reissue more than 9,000 credit/debit cards-and $500,000 for the harm the massive breach caused to the credit union's reputation.

"That's the biggest effect, by far, that it's had on us," Blake said of the potential threat to customers of the national chain's TX Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and AJ Wright stores.

More than 100 CUs have reported damages from the TJX breach, with hundreds of thousands of cards across the country replaced as a precaution. Bankers in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine have filed suit to reclaim some of the costs, but so far credit unions have yet to sign on the purported class action. Officials at TJX did not return phone calls seeking comment.