Banks Drop Data-Breach Suit Against Target, Trustwave

By Danny Yadron 

Two banks have dropped their lawsuit against Target Corp. and its security assessor, Trustwave Holdings Inc., following the theft of 40 million credit- and debit-card numbers from the retailer last year, according to court documents.

Trustmark National Bank and Green Bank N.A. offered no reason for the about-face in filings, and their lawyers didn't return requests for comment.

The suit, filed last week, drew attention in cybersecurity circles because it named Trustwave, a private Chicago firm that does many payment-card security audits in the U.S.

Two months before the breach, Trustwave told Target it complied with standards set by the payment-card industry. In their complaint, the banks also said Trustwave monitored Target's network for intrusions--making the company particularly liable in the suit.

Trustwave, which declined to comment Tuesday, denied in a statement Saturday that it had monitored Target's network or processed cardholder data for Target.

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