NEW YORK — Home Depot faces at least 44 lawsuits in the United States and Canada over a massive data breach earlier this year that affected 56 million debit and credit cards.
The nation’s biggest home improvement retailer also said Tuesday in a regulatory filing that several state and federal agencies are looking into the data breach and it may face more litigation from customers, banks, shareholders, and others.
Home Depot said the litigation and the investigations may distract management and affect how it runs its business. It also could lead to additional costs and fines. But those expenses aren’t clear yet because the cases are in early stages, the company said in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said earlier this month after announcing third-quarter earnings that it anticipates a fourth-quarter breach-related expense of about $27 million — about $6 million after insurance. It has a $100 million insurance policy for breach-related expenses. That comes with a $7.5 million deductible.
The Atlanta-based retailer disclosed the months-long breach of data in September. It has said that the hackers initially accessed its network in April with a third-party vendor’s username and password. Hackers then deployed malware on Home Depot’s self-checkout systems to gain access to the card information of customers who shopped at its US and Canadian stores between April and September.
Home Depot’s breach surpassed Target’s pre-Christmas 2013 data theft, which compromised 40 million credit and debit cards and hurt profits. Since late last year, Michaels, SuperValu, and Neiman Marcus have been among a string of retailers that have also reported breaches, though they were smaller.