Law360, New York ( September 23, 2014, 10:30 AM EDT) -- By now it should come as no surprise to anyone that costly and high-profile data breaches are on the rise, especially in light of The Home Depot Inc.'s disclosure of the theft of approximately 56 million unique payment cards — the latest, and currently largest, reported retail data breach. By contrast, Target Corp. has disclosed that its high-profile data breach impacted approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts, although up to 70 million individuals could potentially be affected. In response, American retailers are re-examining payment technology to increase security of their customers' transactions. As part of that initiative, merchants are embracing secure credit cards and tokenization to minimize the risk of a data breach. When considering whether to invest in these technologies, retailers must seriously consider the potential legal risks of not adopting these advances as industry payment standards change....