A massive data breach exposed thousands of Capital One customers’ sensitive data, putting them at lifelong risk of identity theft, a new class action lawsuit claims.
Filed by plaintiff Andrew Willoughby, the suit alleges Capital One Financial Corporation, Capital One N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA) N.A. entities exposed its customers’ personal identifiable information (PII) due to an employee’s negligence.
The suit alleges that because of inadequately protected computer systems, customers’ names, Social Security numbers, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, credit card numbers, transaction history, and other financial information exposed via a data breach.
The breach happened between August 11, 2022 and May 22, 2023, when an “unauthorized actor” accessed client PII due to the employee’s “failure to maintain an adequate security system,” according to the lawsuit.
The Capital One employee also allegedly delayed informing the plaintiffs of what happened in time to save them from potential identity theft crimes.
Says the complaint,
“Due to Defendants’ negligence, cybercriminals obtained everything they need to commit identity theft and wreak havoc on the financial and personal lives of thousands of individuals…
Defendants were negligent and failed to inform Plaintiff and the Class Members of the data breach in time for them to protect themselves from identity theft.”
Now, the suit alleges that “for the rest of their lives,” Capital One customers will have to face the threat of identity thieves possessing or misusing their personal information via the dark web.
“The unencrypted PII of Plaintiff and Class Members may end up for sale on the dark web or simply fall into the hands of companies that will use the detailed PII for targeted marketing without the approval of Plaintiff and Class Members. Unauthorized individuals can easily access the PII of Plaintiff and Class Members.”
Capital One was also recently accused of engaging in “cancel culture” by President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump.
The bank has $490.1 billion in total assets as of the end of last year.
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