Last week, Target announced a $39 million dollar settlement with banks and credit unions to resolve claims related to the retailer’s data breach in late 2013.  To refresh your memory, this breach compromised over 40 million credit cards and up to 110 million people may have had their personal data stolen.

This settlement amount is only the latest cost announced by Target related to the breach.  According to this Reuters article:

Earlier this year, Target agreed to pay Visa Inc card issuers as much as $67 million over the breach and reached a $10 million settlement with shoppers. The latter accord won court approval last month.

Target said it had spent $290 million related to the breach, and expected insurers to reimburse $90 million. It still faces shareholder lawsuits, as well as probes by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, over the breach.

Trade groups representing banks and credit unions have estimated their members incurred more than $200 million of expenses related to the breach.

Target will also pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees, pending court approval, and will not appeal any sum of $20 million or less, court papers show. (source)

This data breach, when all is said and done, could cost over half a billion dollars.

Considering the potential cost of a hack, the protection afforded by implementing a strong two-factor authentication solution, such as GreenRADIUS, to an organization’s security framework, and the affordability of GreenRADIUS compared to legacy 2FA systems, GreenRADIUS should be an easy choice.