ROCKVILLE, Md.— The $2-billion Lafayette Federal Credit Union is facing a series of class action lawsuits that accuse the CU of failing to protect the sensitive personal information (PII) of more than 75,000 customers in a data breach, Top Class Actions reported.
As CUToday.info reported, in March the CU filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of California after discovering that an unauthorized party gained access to an LFCU employee’s email account.
In its notice, LFCU explained the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access consumers’ sensitive information. Upon completing its investigation, Lafayette FCU said it began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the incident.
Plaintiffs Sebhia Dibra, Carl Lewis and Joseph Mausteller each filed class action lawsuits against Lafayette FCU between March 27 and March 31 in Maryland federal court, alleging negligence and breach of contract, Top Class Actions reported.
Lafayette breached these duties owed to consumers by failing to safeguard their PII it collected and maintained, and failing to implement industry standards for data security to protect against, detect, and stop cyberattacks, the lawsuits allege, according to Top Class Actions.
“Mausteller alleges an unauthorized transaction appeared on his Lafayette debit card, which was subsequently canceled. Since the data breach, plaintiff Dibra claims she has experienced a spike in spam calls and texts using compromised PII,” Top Class Actions said.
The plaintiffs are suing on behalf of all consumers whose PII may have been compromised in the data breach, including all individuals who received a notice letter. They’re suing for negligence and breach of contract and seek certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial, Top Class Actions said.