The story is much the same for Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., which exposed 180,000 customer records in April 2005.
"Management does not expect that the ultimate resolution of this matter will have a material adverse effect on the Company's liquidity or financial position," the company wrote in its annual report filed June 15.
Ralph Lauren expects to pay $13 million to settle claims by banks related to the breach - fraudulent credit card charges, the cost of replacing cards and related monitoring expenses. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the company's 2006 sales of 3.7 billon and net income of $308 million.
The costs for ChoicePoint Inc. have been higher, but the company still believes that it won't feel a pinch in its cash flow, despite acknowledging that "there are other instances that will likely result in notification to consumers," besides the 145,000 records it exposed in February 2005, it wrote in its quarterly report filed May 9.
ChoicePoint, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, reported record revenue of $1.1 billion for 2005, a 15 percent increase over 2004. Operating income decreased 2 percent, to $237.1 million, largely because of a pre-tax charge of $8.0 million for its settlement with the FTC and another a $19.3 million charge for legal expenses and other fees.
The settlement cost, which included a $10.0 million civil penalty, a $5.0 million fund to be administered by the FTC for consumer redress initiatives, and a $4.0 million charge for additional information security obligations, would have been higher but ChoicePoint received $11.0 million in insurance proceeds.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
