As part of a settlement with 41 state attorneys general, TJX Companies agreed Tuesday to better protect its customers’ credit-card data and to pay out $9.75 million to the states that sued over illegal data breaches in 2006.

According to TJX — the Framingham, Mass.-basedowner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods — the company will pay a $5.5 million settlement, plus $1.75 million to cover the legal costs of the attorneys general and $2.5 million to establish a data-security fund that states can use to improve data-security technology.

The Illinois Attorney General’s Office will receive more than $440,000 from the settlement to aid consumer-protection enforcement; the Missouri Attorney General’s Office will get about $67,400.

In a press release, TJX said it already has spent millions to improve data security and that it cooperated fully with federal investigators looking into the 2006 hacking.