Fines and lawsuits - data breaches and the bottomline

Am not sure if the costs of data breaches are considered "soft-costs", or prevention is not sexy enough - but the recent $20M settlement from the VA and news about the lawsuit filed against Heartland seem to an interesting precedent.

Will this shake up the companies and have them start thinking that prevention is significantly less expensive than the headache and costs of settling stuff, post-breach?

Time will tell...