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September 8, 2014

Expert: Banks suffer the most from data breaches

In light of a recent data breach at Home Depot, the president of the Maine Credit Union League said financial institutions will pay the biggest price, far more than consumers ever will.

John Murphy told the Portland Press Herald that banks and credit unions in Maine are expected to pay million of dollars as a result of reimbursing losses for credit card customers and issuing new cards, in reaction to the recent data breach. He added that those extra costs will ultimately result in higher fees or interest rates for customers.

The newspaper noted that a 2008 survey by the Maine Bureau of Financial Institutions found that most of the 75 banks and credit unions surveyed were impacted by data breaches at Hannaford Supermarkets and TJX, costing them a total of approximately $2.1 million.

More than 52,000 Maine credit cards appeared on a black market website last week, most likely as a result of a data breach at Home Depot. Home Depot has yet to confirm whether those credit cards were stolen from its Maine stores. A company-wide data breach at the home improvement retail chain was first reported by krebsonsecurity.com on Sept. 2.

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