San Diego Sues Experian Over ID Theft Service
Summary: The City of San Diego, through city attorney Mara Elliott, is suing Experian over a nine-month data breach ending in 2013 at an Experian subsidiary, alleging the company never notified affected consumers as California law requires. The breach traces to Hieu Minh Ngo, who posed as a licensed private investigator to pay Experian thousands of dollars monthly for access to 200 million consumer records, then resold that access to more than 1,300 customers of his identity theft service.
Bottom line: The suit cites IRS figures that hackers filed more than 13,000 false returns using the hacked information and obtained $65 million in fraudulent tax refunds, while an Experian executive told Congress in December 2013 the company was not aware of any consumers harmed. California law allows penalties of up to $2,500 per violation, and the city estimates 250,000 San Diego residents were affected out of some 30 million consumers potentially exposed.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
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