Target breach has cost company $162 million

Target has paid a whopping $162 million in recovering from a breach in late 2013 that exposed data from almost 70 million shoppers.

The company announced its fourth-quarter earnings for 2014 on Wednesday, revealing that the company is still paying for fallout from its breach. It spent $145 million through 2014, in addition to the $17 million it paid in late 2013 on recovery.

{mosads}The costs have gone toward investigating the breach, providing identity monitoring services to affected customers and legal fees.

The retailing giant’s breach was the first in the long line of high-profile breaches over the next year. Companies like Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and Sony Pictures Entertainment have all fallen victim to massive cyberattacks, leaving executives scrambling to mend their cyber defenses.

Multiple companies have reported breach fallout costs in the tens of millions of dollars, but so far, Target’s expenses outpace the rest.

Home Depot said it has spent $43 million to this point but acknowledged in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that that number will go up.

After much speculation that the Sony hack might set the studio back upwards of $100 million, the studio reported it had spent $15 million thus far on fallout costs.

In addition to Target’s financial repercussions, the company’s then-CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigned in the wake of the breach.

The breached companies are also facing dozens of class-action lawsuits.