Judge blocks data breach suit against The Home Depot

A 2014 data breach compromised financial information of about 56 million customers of The Home Depot.

A 2014 data breach compromised financial information of about 56 million customers of The Home Depot.

A federal judge has dismissed a suit against The Home Depot that had been pegged to a widespread and high-profile data breach two years ago, according to the Daily Report.

U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Thrash, sitting in Atlanta, said company’s top management, as well as its board of directors did try to address the weaknesses in its online and data security, “even if the steps they took in hindsight proved to be inadequate,” the Daily Report said.

Company officials were unavailable late today. The Daily Report said they declined to comment earlier in the day.

But for the case – a shareholder derivative suit – to go forward, the plaintiffs needed to show that Home Depot had not acted despite knowing of a threat. The judged said this was "an incredibly high hurdle for the plaintiffs to overcome, and it is not surprising that they fail to do so," according to the Daily Report.

The breach was massive, involving financial data of 56 million customers in 2014.