Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

John Jack: Target data breach direct costs reached $236M

John Jack · a16z Podcast | Security’s Wakeup Call · Jan 2, 2019 · at 0:53

John Jack, board partner at Andreessen Horowitz, discusses public data breach costs in conversation with cybersecurity leaders.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.6s

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“There's the target breach, which the cost to target is now two hundred and thirty six million dollars direct costs and rising, and we know what happened to a few people's jobs there.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Direct costs to Target from its cyber breach reached $236 million and continue to rise.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Target Corporation's disclosures and financial reports confirm both legs of the claim. Around mid-to-late 2014 (approximately eight months post-breach), Target's cumulative pre-tax data breach-related expenses reached an estimated $236 million. Furthermore, costs continued to rise, reaching $252 million in cumulative pre-tax breach expenses by the end of Fiscal Year 2014 (Form 10-K filed March 2015) and $292 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2016.

Target Corporation Form 10-K for FY2014 reported cumulative pre-tax breach-related expenses reaching $252 million ($61 million in FY2013 and $191 million in FY2014).
Intermediate reports and case studies for Q2/Q3 2014 documented cumulative pre-tax breach expenses reaching approximately $236 million.
Target Form 10-K for FY2016 confirmed that cumulative breach expenses continued to rise, reaching $292 million.

Checked against

[1] sec.gov [2] mintz.com [3] accountingintheheadlines.com [4] tcbmag.com [5] thesslstore.com [6] ca.gov [7] slideshare.net [8] researchgate.net

Target SEC 10 K 2013 data breach cumulative expenses Target 2013 data breach total costs gross expenses 292 million 252 million 236 million Target data breach cumulative costs gross expenses 236 million SEC 10 K "cumulative" "data breach" "Target" "10-K" OR "Form 10-K" expenses "236 million" "Target" "breach" "insurance"

assessed as of 2026-08-27

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Mentioned

Target

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John Jack: Target data breach direct costs reached $236M

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