Two banks have dismissed a class-action lawsuit against retailer Target and information security vendor Trustwave a week after filing it.
The suit, filed March 24 by Trustmark National Bank and Green Bank in U.S. District Court in Northern Illinois, alleges, “upon information and belief,” that Target hired Trustwave to protect and monitor the retailer’s systems but Trustwave “failed to live up to its promises, or to meet industry standards.”
Trustwave’s counter appears to have sunk the litigation.
“Contrary to the misstated allegations in the plaintiff’s complaints, Target did not outsource its data security or IT obligations to Trustwave,” said CEO Robert J. McCullen in a statement. “Trustwave did not monitor Target’s network, nor did Trustwave process cardholder data for Target.”
On March 31 Green Bank filed its “motion of voluntary dismissal.” Trustmark filed the same motion on March 28.
The banks had alleged Trustwave told Target as late as last September that there were no vulnerabilities in the retailer’s computer system. The suit furthermore claimed Trustwave was hired to detect breaches of personal identifiable information and other data but the late 2013 data breach “continued for nearly three weeks on Trustwave’s watch.”
The Target data breach is the largest ever retail breach according to Advisen Loss Insight data. After initially announcing 40 million customer debit and credit cards were exposed, Target additionally told the public as many as 70 million more customers had personal information stolen as part of the November 27 – December 15 breach.
