TJX Says 45.7 million Credit Card Numbers Stolen in Breach

TJX Cos., owner of Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, the go-to stores for career gals on a budget with no access to a Filene’s Basement, lost 45.7 million credit-card numbers to theft, the biggest theft of such data.

About 75 percent of the debit- and credit-cards were either expired or the security data stored on the magnetic strip wasn’t stolen, the company said in a regulatory filing late yesterday.

TJX reported the breach in January.  They waited until almost April to reveal the scope of the breach.

TJX also said personal data on 455,000 people, including numbers for drivers’ licenses and military identification cards, were stolen. The company doesn’t know if any of the credit-card numbers or personal data were used by thieves.

The company will face lawsuits related to the breach in state and federal courts in Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and in provincial courts in six Canadian provinces.