A Pennsylvania collection agency has been slapped with a class action lawsuit after experiencing a major data breach in February that exposed the private information of more than 3.4 million people.
Jason Dozal filed the class action lawsuit against Financial Business and Consumer Solutions, Inc. (FBCS) on June 25 in a Pennsylvania federal court, alleging violations of state and federal consumer laws.
Dozal, an Idaho man whose data was exposed in the breach, alleges FBCS failed to adequately safeguard the personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI) of himself and millions of others.
The exposed data may include names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, financial account details, medical records, health insurance information, dates of birth, and more, he alleges.
“FBCS knew, or should have known, the importance of safeguarding PII and PHI entrusted to it and of the foreseeable consequences if its data security systems were breached,” the lawsuit states. “FBCS failed, however, to take adequate cybersecurity measures to prevent the Data Breach from occurring.”
Dozal says FBCS did not adhere to industry standards for information security, despite a flood of data breaches hitting companies all over the country.
One of the major issues is that FBCS did not immediately notify people that their private information was exposed to hackers, he says.
According to the lawsuit, FBCS first detected unauthorized access to its network on Feb. 26. At that time, it found that intruders had been in its network since at least Feb. 14.
However, FBCS waited until April 26 to notify affected individuals, Dozal says. Initially FCBS reported that 1,955,385 people were impacted, but two months later it revised this number to 3,435,640 individuals.
The breach has caused significant harm to those affected, who may remain at risk of cybercrime and identity theft for years to come, the lawsuit states.
Data breaches have become a pervasive issue, leading to numerous class action lawsuits and significant settlements in recent years.
In 2017, Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting agencies, suffered a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of approximately 147 million people. Equifax agreed to pay up to $425 million to consumers who were harmed by the breach. The settlement included funds for consumer restitution and credit monitoring services.
In 2013 and 2014, Yahoo experienced two significant data breaches that compromised the personal information of over 3 billion user accounts. In 2019, Yahoo agreed to a $117.5 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit related to these breaches.
In the FBCS data breach class action lawsuit, Dozal is looking to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was compromised in the data breach. He’s seeking certification of the class action, damages, compensation for the time and effort spent dealing with the breach, free credit monitoring, identity theft insurance, and mandatory improvements to FBCS's data security practices.
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