Class action follows massive US data breach1 min read

US-based Gibbs Law Group has filed a class action lawsuit against global insurer First American Financial Corp for allegedly failing to protect “millions” of customer files. The insurer offers mortgage title insurance and services for property deals in North America.

The alleged data breach came to light when a property developer in the US contacted journalist Brian Krebs after he found he could access other customers’ private information.

Gibbs Law Group has claimed the insurer had leaked 885 million files of mortgage deals going back to 2003. According to the complaint document, this included bank account numbers, tax records, social security numbers, and images of drivers’ licenses. Gibbs Law Group representatives said the documents “were publicly available without authentication to anyone with a web browser”.

The class action complaint document, filed with US District Court Central District of California, said: “Despite explicitly promising customers robust data security as part of the high cost of title services, First American allowed anyone to access the sensitive files of millions of customers. Nor is this just a theoretical concern –many, if not all, of the documents were repeatedly accessed before First American was told about the breach.

“First American made it incredibly easy for the public to access this private information by failing to implement even rudimentary security measures.”