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At least 21 federal lawsuits have been filed against Home Depot as of Oct. 10 over the home improvement chain's recent data breach, according to a review by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The Chronicle found that all the allegations against Home Depot make a similar point: that the data breach could have been avoided had Home Depot taken adequate measures to ensure its payment systems and customers' data was secure.

The plaintiffs have asked the courts to give the lawsuits class-action status, the report said, which would allow them to represent others affected by the data breach. The Chronicle reported that Home Depot has asked the federal court in Atlanta to give the company until Dec. 15 to respond to allegations from some of the lawsuits.

Some credit unions, including First Choice Federal Credit Union of Pennsylvania, Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union of New York and, most recently, Cattaraugus County School Employees Federal Credit Union also of New York, have filed suits against Home Depot.

NAFCU was the first financial trade association to call for a national retailer data security standard in the wake of the massive Target data breach last year. It is also a member of the Payments Security Task Force, a diverse group of participants in the payments industry focused on EMV chip implementation, including ways to help reduce testing and implementation time.

The association is also pushing Congress to establish a bipartisan working group to develop legislative recommendations to address ongoing retailer breaches.