Apart from the fact that I don’t think we should be getting our news about breaches from court filings years after a breach occurs, it is still somewhat interesting when we finally get some numbers — even if they are are estimates or arguable.
In a court filing by Albert Gonzalez’s attorney yesterday, there are references to the pre-sentencing report (PSR):
The PSR states that of the 36 million card numbers obtained from TJX, at least 25 million — approximately 70% — were expired, PSR ¶35, and therefor unusable.
36 million? Not 45 million or 94 million? Hmmmm…
… the PSR states that defendants obtained account information for 5,132 cards through the Dave & Buster’s intrusion, but only 675 cards — about 13% — were ever used. PSR ¶26. The government also, with one exception, has not attempted to quantify the number of cards as to which the information was actually sold. The one exception is the statement in the PSR that codefendant Scott estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 credit card numbers obtained from BJ’s Wholesale Club were sold. PSR ¶31…. Gonzalez has testified the reliability of Scott’s estimate.
The PSR also provided estimates of losses due to breaches:
As for actual loss, the PSR lists the following: “TJX, more than $180.5 million in losses and associated expenses” (later changed to $171.5 million, itself a reflection of guesswork), DSW, $6.5 million to $9.5 million; BJ’s, $11 million to $13 million; Dave & Busters, $720,288.
I’ve uploaded the memorandum for those who wish to read more of the references to the government’s report, here. The numbers begin on page 11 of the memorandum.