Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) announced last Friday that the recently discovered data breach at its stores affected 56 million customers. The company said it had eliminated the malware responsible for the breach and offered free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to customers who have used a payment card at any Home Depot store since April.

On Sunday, the company posted a letter at its website apologizing to customers for “any inconvenience caused by this incident.” The letter also directs customers to a page where they may register for the identity protection service. Here’s the offer:

If you need identity repair assistance during the next 12 months, starting on September 8, 2014, the team at AllClear ID is ready and standing by to assist you. There is no action required on your part at this time. If a problem arises, simply call … and a dedicated investigator will do the work to recover financial losses, restore your credit, and make sure your identity is returned to its proper condition.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) made a similar offer after the breach at Target stores that exposed the records of some 40 million customers.

In an article published in February 2013, Consumer Reports magazine recommends that people who are notified that their personal data may have been breached should take advantage of free offers like this. Here’s why: more than 22% of consumers whose data has been breached will become victims of identity fraud, compared with less than 3% for consumers whose data has not been breached.

With the odds of identity fraud rising by nearly 10 times if personal data is breached, it is disingenuous of Home Depot to suggest that its customers should take no action unless they become victims of fraud. Sure the company doesn’t want to pay for 56 million annual subscriptions to an identity protection program, but it could have emphasized the threat to its customers.

A basic ID theft protection plan with Equifax costs $18 a month. Multiplied by 56 million card accounts, that comes to just over $1 billion a month. Home Depot is unlikely to be paying that much per subscriber, but the company would still like to keep the number of subscribers low.

Home Depot’s stock closed on Friday at $92.34, in a 52-week range of $73.74 to $93.75, and was inactive in premarket trading Monday.

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