Banks Could Sue Target Over Credit Card Breach

To help pay for the costs incurred cleaning up after the hacking mess

Banks like Chase and Citibank could hit Target to help pay for the cost of cleaning up the mess of the retailer's recent loss of card information to hackers.

"Given the magnitude of the breach and what we've seen in the past, banks are likely to bring action," said information security expert Randy Sabett, an attorney at ZwillGen.

Target said on Dec. 19 that approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts "may have been impacted" after being used to pay for purchases at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. Chase and Citi moved over the weekend to monitor or impose limits on cards that were affected; Chase even reopened a third of its branches Sunday to help issue new cards and allow for large withdrawals.