The data breach in question took place in late July when an unauthorized third party got access to Samsung’s US-based systems. The attacker stole personally identifiable information about some Samsung customers. The new report states that more than 3,000 customers were affected. Information accessed included the full name, contact, demographic information, date of birth, and product registration information, though it may vary for each customer. Samsung confirmed that Social Security numbers and payment details such as credit and debit card numbers weren’t accessed. The company came to know about this data breach on August 4th while conducting an internal investigation. However, it didn’t notify the affected customers or publicly disclose the breach until September 2. And this is what the class action lawsuit is targeting. The complaint alleges that Samsung failed to follow its own policies as well as the industry security standards to protect the private information of its customers. Moreover, the company took almost a month to notify the affected customers about it.
Samsung faces lawsuit for delayed disclosure of the data breach
In its public notice regarding the data breach, Samsung said it has communicated directly with affected customers, at least those it could identify. The company is in the process of identifying more customers whose personal information may have been compromised in the breach. It will accordingly notify them of the same. In the meantime, Samsung encourages people to remain cautious of any unsolicited communications asking for their personal information. The company also wants you to avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails. Samsung says it has taken action to secure the affected systems. Along with the internal security team, the company also engaged a “leading outside cybersecurity firm” to strengthen its security measures. It also coordinated the matter with law enforcement. But the Korean firm may still end up in a courtroom over this data breach because it took longer than it should have to notify customers about it. Time will tell what comes out of this class action lawsuit. We will keep you posted as and when we have more information.
