Apr 04 2008 : TJX has reached a US$24 million settlement agreement with MasterCard for data security breach losses suffered by MasterCard issuers worldwide. The TJX payment is to support an “Alternative Recovery Program,” which will compensate issuers for operational expenses and fraud losses linked to the TJX data breach. In January 2007, TJX revealed that hackers had stolen 45.7 million debit and credit card numbers from its systems. Court filings later claimed that this figure was closer to 94 million card accounts. MasterCard issuers who filed claims for TJX-related losses and choose to participate in the optional program, will be eligible to receive financial restitution in the second quarter of 2008, MasterCard says. The agreement is contingent upon acceptance by issuers representing at least 90 percent of the affected MasterCard accounts, TJX says. TJX says the estimated costs of the settlement are included in a US$107 million reserve taken by the U.S.-based retailer in fiscal 2008 for the data intrusion. In December 2007, TJX reached a US$40.9 million settlement with issuers of Visa cards that had been affected by its security breach. The offer had been accepted by 95 percent of companies affected, TJX said in January 2008. In March 2008, TJX reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which requires it to implement comprehensive IT security programs and obtain audits by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years.