Home Depot expects data breach to cost at least $34M in 2014

The Home Depot Inc. has reported pretax net expenses of $28 million related to its recent data breach and said it anticipates the total cost will be about at least $34 million for the year.

But the Atlanta-based retailer added that it does not know how much the breach will ultimately cost it.

Home Depot said in its earnings statement Tuesday that its 2014 estimate “does not include an accrual for other probable losses related to the breach that cannot be estimated at this time.”

The statement says breach-related costs the company is still unable to estimate may include liabilities to payment card networks for reimbursements of credit card fraud and card reissuance costs; liabilities related to the company's private-label credit card fraud and card reissuance; liabilities from current and future civil litigation, governmental investigations and enforcement proceedings; future expenses for legal, investigative and consulting fees; and incremental expenses and capital investments for remediation expenses.

“Those costs may have material adverse impact on the company's financial results in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 and/or future periods,” says the statement.

Home Depot has said the custom-built malware used in the breach put about 56 million payment cards' information at risk.

The retailer has $105 million in cyber insurance, according to market sources.