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The five financial institutions suing Target in response to its massive 2013 data breach were certified as a class by a Minnesota federal district court judge on Tuesday.

Class action status will allow other financial institutions to join the case.

NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt responded in a statement: "NAFCU is pleased with the court's decision to certify financial institutions as a class in the data breach suit against Target. As we have consistently maintained, credit unions deserve to be made whole for their losses, and this includes the opportunity to pursue all legal options available. Today's class certification constitutes one important avenue for recovery."

"This lawsuit is only one part of the equation," Hunt continued. "To prevent these types of data breaches in the future, Congress must act to protect consumers' financial information by enacting national data security standards for retailers and holding them directly accountable for their data breaches."

In August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes ordered 55-page document to be unsealed; that document indicated that Target waited to respond to alerts about the breach to avoid interrupting sales promotions on "Cyber Monday" after Thanksgiving.

NAFCU continues to monitor the case closely, and to push lawmakers to pass a national data security measure requiring retailers to be held to the same standards that financial institutions already follow.