VENTURA Calif.–Ventura County Credit Union is now facing at least two class action lawsuits related to a 2022 breach that affected as many as 82,000 members, a breach the lawsuit alleges the credit union did not disclose for six months.
The plaintiffs in the suit filed in Ventura County Superior Court are Trevor McCartney and Brian Giffen.
The plaintiffs are alleging VCCU failed to implement and maintain reasonable cybersecurity procedures to protect personal and financial information from hackers, according to the Business Times. According to the civil complaints, the credit union’s online systems suffered a two-month massive ransomware attack and data breach from approximately Oct. 20, 2022, through Dec. 15, 2022, the Times added in citing the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, member and employee data that included names, Social Security numbers and financial accounts information was breached in an attack that was discovered in December 2022 but not disclosed until July 6, 2023.
‘Waited for Six Months’
“Remarkably, VCCU waited … more than six months after it discovered the data breach, to inform impacted parties that their personal identifying information was the target of a data breach,” the Business Times quotes the suit as alleging
Ventura County CU, which declined comment to the Business Times, stated in a notice to members that “We immediately launched an investigation, with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists, to determine the nature and scope of the activity.”
The probe determined that the hackers gained access to customers’ accounts through the employee email accounts, McCartney’s lawsuit states, according to the report.
VCCU is offering members affected by the breach up to 12 months of credit monitoring and identity protection services, according to the suit filed by McCartney.
Additional Allegations
The civil complaints allege negligence, breach of contract, violation of the right to privacy under the California Constitution and other grounds, the Times reported.
The $1.33-billion Ventura County CU has approximately 75,000 members.
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