In the latest twist in the TJ Maxx data breach/identity theft saga, the company just offered to provide victims with three years of free credit monitoring as well as identity theft insurance, in an effort to settle the first long-expected class action lawsuits.

The company is also offering to cover the cost of replacing victim driver's licenses, is offering some victims $30 shopping vouchers and even announced a three-day customer appreciation sale offering 15% off. I wonder if it's a victim-only sale? Just hope they don't ask for a driver's license as ID.

To jog your memory, TJ Maxx' parent company was at the center of a highly publicized data breach earlier this year that exposed the personal records of more than 46 million of its customers. At the time, the company estimated the cost of the impact at around $3 - $5 million while security experts put the real figure at a staggering $1 billion or more.

So far, TJ Maxx admits that the breach has in fact cost about $150 million. But that's about all. I've been saying for years that the biggest cost to businesses that suffer data breaches is the impact on brand reputation and customer confidence. But not so (or at least so far) for TJ Maxx, which has seen its sales and profits continue uninterrupted since the breach. I guess it's that consumer apathy thing again.

In a related story, one of the dozens of various criminals charged in the theft of TJ Maxx data was just sentenced to five years in prison. Plenty of time for him to mull over the fact that his actions had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the share price of TJ Maxx shares.