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Adobe Data Breach

Adobe Systems is planning to settle the class action lawsuit filed against them. The company reportedly suffered a series of data breaches in October 2013. The breaches affected an estimated 38 million customer accounts, resulting in the theft of 3 million credit and debit card records in addition to the login information of a large number of Adobe users.

In February 2015 Adobe agreed to settle the lawsuit in return for all related claims being dismissed. The court initially gave the parties until April 30 to submit a preliminary settlement agreement but has since pushed that date back. After requesting more time to create the settlement agreement, the court extended the deadline to June 10.

Reasons for Settlement

Adobe’s decision to settle was probably influenced by the recent Target data breach settlement agreement. In March 2015 the court approved Target’s proposed settlement agreement of $10 million. Target must also pay $6.75 million in court costs on top of the $162 million they have already spent because of the breach. This may seem like a high price for the company to pay, but it could have been even higher if there was no settlement. Target’s expenses could have kept increasing as the lawsuit went on, but by agreeing to settle the company effectively cutting their losses. Adobe faces a similar situation. If the parties can’t produce a settlement agreement by June 10, the company faces increasing court costs associated with what is sure to be an uphill battle.

The key difference between the Adobe breach and the Target breach is the nature of the companies. Target is a large retailer of consumer goods but Adobe is a software company whose programs are found on virtually every computer. Adobe faces increased pressure from the public because vulnerability in Adobe software means vulnerability in millions of personal computers containing private data. Hackers have exploited these vulnerabilities in the software before and the plaintiffs allege that Adobe misrepresented the company’s security precautions when they made assurances to customers. All these factors, rising costs, public scrutiny, and past assurances, contribute to the likelihood that Adobe will settle the case.

The Initial Series of Data Breaches

Adobe disclosed news of the data breach on October 3, 2013. However, the plaintiffs allege that Adobe knew of the breach by September 17, 2013 and chose not to warn customers until two weeks later. Adobe initially reported that 2.9 million customer accounts were compromised but increased that number to 38 million after further investigation. The investigation revealed that hackers had access to Adobe’s networks since July of that year, and went undetected for a number of weeks. Adobe’s chief security officer Brad Arkin said that hackers “compromised the source code for numerous Adobe products.” The affected products include Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion, and ColdFusion Builder. As part of their corrective measures Adobe has offered a year of prepaid identity theft monitoring services for affected customers.

If you believe your credit or debit card information was stolen because of a data breach, please contact us using the form on this page or call us at 424-245-5505. You may be part of a class action lawsuit.

New Sally Beauty Data Breach

Sally Beauty is investigating reports of unusual credit and debit card activity at some of its stores. This news comes barely a year after a previous data breach targeting Sally Beauty. If you used a credit or debit card at a Sally Beauty store then you may have had your financial information stolen. Please contact us using the form on this page or call us at 424-245-5505. You may be part of a class action lawsuit.

Background

On May 4, 2015 Sally Beauty released a statement that it is investigating reports of new unusual payment card activity at some of its U.S. Sally Beauty stores. The company says it began to receive related warnings during the week of April 27. Sally Beauty customers with credit card issues have been advised to contact Sally Beauty’s customer service hotline.

Sally Beauty suffered a previous data breach in March of 2014. During this initial breach hackers stole the personal information of thousands of customers, including credit and debit card numbers. Approximately 282,000 payment cards went up for sale Rescator[dot]com, a cybercrime website used to sell stolen data. The payment cards posted for sale were traced back to customers who shopped at Sally Beauty Stores. At the time of the initial data breach, Sally Beauty information technology investigators could not find any evidence that customer data was stolen.

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. is an international specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies. The corporation operates Sally Beauty Supply and Beauty Systems Group businesses with more than 4,000 stores located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Puerto Rico, Mexico, France, Ireland, Spain, and Germany.

Data Breach

A data breach occurs when an unauthorized person views, accesses, or retrieves protected or confidential data belonging to another. The data targeted is usually personal or financial information belonging to a company’s customers. Businesses with customer information on file provide tempting targets for computer hackers and thieves. International companies like Sally Beauty can store the information of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. Once a thief has the confidential information, they expose the entire customer base to the possibility of identity theft and financial hardship.

Potential Class Action

Despite the company’s claims that customer security was a priority, Sally Beauty still suffered another data breach. The occurrence of a second data breach in so short a time could mean several things. Either the measures they took to secure the breach were insufficient, leading to a second breach, or the breach was never corrected, allowing hackers to steal customer information continuously for the past year. Neither possibility is good for customers of Sally Beauty.

The Class Action News is investigating this most recent Sally Beauty data breach. If you used a credit or debit card at a Sally Beauty store then you may have had your financial information stolen. Please contact us using the form on this page or call us at 424-245-5505. You may be part of a class action lawsuit.

AdultFriendFinder.com has recently suffered a data breach. If you have ever had a user account with AdultFriendFinder, your personal information may have been stolen. Please contact us using the form on this page or call The Class Action News at 424-245-5505.

Background

FriendFinder Networks, Inc. has reported that its website AdultFriendFinder.com has recently been attacked by hackers. The hackers have broken into the website’s security, stolen information from millions of users, and have begun to sell the information online through so-called “dark web” sites. The stolen information includes personal data including email addresses, mailing addresses, computer IP addresses, usernames, dates of birth, marital status, and the sexual preference of the user. Within hours of the data leak, hackers on the criminal website have begun to hit victims with viruses and spam emails. It is unknown at this point if credit card information was stolen as well.

The data breach was first uncovered by U.K. news agency Channel 4, which reported that it found 15 spreadsheets containing the information of 3.9 million AdultFriendFinder users being sold online. AdultFriendFinder does not know exactly how many users may have been affected but it is currently investigating the data breach.

Channel 4 also reports that even deleted accounts have had their information stolen. Any information ever entered into the AdultFriendFinder website is at risk. Deleted accounts offer no protection against the data breach.

FriendFinder Networks, Inc. is an internet-based social networking and multimedia entertainment company. The company has over 40,000 websites in its network, and more than 600 million registered user accounts. The company’s subsidiary, and the only confirmed target of the hack, AdultFriendFinder has 63 million users worldwide.

Data Breach

A data breach occurs when an unauthorized person views, accesses, or retrieves protected or confidential data belonging to another. One of the most common types of data breach is a cyber attack. Computer hackers target organizations to illegally gain access to the secure information within. Although companies and other organizations are targeted, it is usually the information of individual people that the hackers are after. The personal and financial information of millions of people can be gathered all at once during a data breach. Once hackers have the information they usually use it to commit credit card and identity fraud. However, in cases like AdultFriendFinder, the hackers instead sell the stolen information. This potentially creates many more opportunities for criminals to commit fraud using the stolen information.

Potential Class Action

AdultFriendFinder has been the target of a data breach. It has been confirmed that at least 3.9 million users have had their information stolen. The actual number of victims may reach as much as 63 million users worldwide. The stolen data is being used to attack home computers and may potentially be used to commit criminal fraud.

If you have ever had a user account with AdultFriendFinder, your personal information may have been stolen. Please contact us using the form on this page or call The Class Action News at 424-245-5505. You may be part of a class action lawsuit.

If you have received a call, text, or fax, that you did not request, you may be part of a class action lawsuit. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is designed to protect people from telemarketing (contacting people to advertise a “service” or a “good”) and “autodialing” (in which phone numbers are automatically dialed by software). The TCPA laws also cover text messages and faxes. If a business is calling, texting or faxing without permission or using auto dial systems, then the business may have to pay damages to the consumer. If you have received a call, text, or fax, that you did not request, please contact us at 424-245-5505.

Las leyes laborales de California y las de Empleo Federal garantizan los derechos civiles del empleado al pago de horas extra y beneficios y lo protegen también contra el acoso y la discriminación en el lugar de trabajo. Un estudio de abogados lí­der en California investiga violaciones a la legislación laboral y ofrece a los trabajadores analizar sus reclamos en forma gratuita.