When TJ Maxx announced that their massive data breach earlier this year would ultimately cost between $3 million and $5 million, I wasn't sure if it was naivety or dishonesty. But nothing near the insanity of the security experts who claimed the real cost would be closer to $1 billion.

Seems like the lunatics really were in charge, because in a recent SEC filing TJ Maxx parent TJX now admits that the costs so far could exceed $150 million, and security experts are sticking by their estimate of $1 billion or more.

And yet despite being accused of letting the biggest and costliest identity theft in history to happen under their very noses, it doesn't seem to worry customers. In the most recent quarter sales were up 9% at TJX. In spite of the ecomonic woes. Go figure!

On a side note authorities seem to be one step closer to the criminal masterminds behind the crime, with the arrest in Turkey of a Ukrainian citizen trading in some of the stolen credit cards.