Security News > 2020 > January > Class Action Breach Lawsuits: The Impact of Data for Sale

After a data breach, if individuals' stolen information is offered for sale on the dark web, that potentially bolsters class action lawsuits filed by plaintiffs against the breached organization, says technology attorney Steven Teppler of the law firm Mandelbaum Salsburg P.C. Data offered for sale "Actually shows that someone is attempting to monetize the victims' information," he says in an interview with Information Security Media Group.

The clinic reported a health data breach in July 2016 to the Department of Health and Human Services as a "Unauthorized access/disclosure" incident involving its electronic health records and affecting 201,000 individuals.

"The hacker offered at least some of the stolen personal data for sale on the so-called 'dark web,' and some of the information was made available, at least temporarily, on Pastebin, a data-storage website," the Georgia Supreme Court wrote in its ruling.

The high court stated that the plaintiffs in the case alleged that "a thief stole a large amount of personal data by hacking into a business's computer databases ... the thief offered at least some of the data for sale, and all class members now face the 'imminent and substantial risk' of identity theft given criminals' ability to use the stolen data to assume the class members' identities and fraudulently obtain credit cards, issue fraudulent checks, file tax refund returns, liquidate bank accounts and open new accounts in their names."

The court adds: "Assuming the truth of these allegations, as we must at this stage, [we] presume that a criminal actor has maliciously accessed the plaintiffs' data and has at least attempted to sell at least some of the data to other wrongdoers. Moreover, an important part of the value of that data to anyone who would buy it in that fashion is its utility in committing identity theft."

News URL

https://www.inforisktoday.com/interviews/class-action-breach-lawsuits-impact-data-for-sale-i-4572