PHILADELPHIA - A recent class action lawsuit accuses The Philadelphia Inquirer of insufficient means to protect against a data breach.
A class action lawsuit was filed May 16 in Philadelphia federal court against The Philadelphia Inquirer by Sheree Mosley. The suit arises from a recent data breach involving the Philadelphia-based newspaper and media company.
The plaintiffs allege that the company failed to adequately secure and safeguard personally identifiable information (PII) collected as part of its regular business practices.
The compromised data includes names and Social Security numbers of approximately 25,000 individuals. It is alleged that the company did not encrypt or redact this sensitive information, leading to its compromise due to negligent and careless acts and omissions by the defendant.
The lawsuit accuses the defendant of negligence, recklessness, and violation of federal and state statutes for failing to properly safeguard employees' PII, provide timely notice of the data breach, implement adequate security measures, prevent unauthorized disclosure of data, and follow appropriate protocols for data encryption.
Plaintiffs claim they have suffered invasion of privacy, theft of their PII, lost or diminished value of PII, lost time and opportunity costs associated with mitigating the consequences of the data breach among other injuries.
Benjamin Johns and Samantha Holbrook of Shub & Johns represent the plaintiff, with help from Gary Klinger of Milberg Coleman in Chicago.