Up next in 10
Ally Bank is under fire as two class action lawsuits claim negligence in protecting customer data after a cyber attack. Discover the implications for the bank and what this means for consumer data security in today's digital age. #CyberSecurity #AllyBank #DataBreach #ClassActionLawsuit #FinancialInstitutions #ConsumerProtection #CyberCrime #DataPrivacy #FTCRegulations #SmallBusinessRisks
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
9:34 now a major bank with ties to the
0:03
Queen City hit with not one but two
0:05
class action lawsuits following an
0:07
alleged Cyber attack the first filed in
0:10
North Carolina Federal Court this past
0:11
Saturday the other on Monday both
0:14
lawsuits claiming Alli Bank was
0:16
negligent in protecting hundreds of
0:18
customers private information Queen City
0:20
News Chief business correspondent Taylor
0:21
young has been combing through the court
0:23
filings in tailor the lawsuits could set
0:25
a major precedent for how companies
0:27
handle these types of data breaches yeah
0:29
you know every week it's seems that we
0:30
are reporting on another company that
0:32
was impacted by a Cyber attack and in
0:34
many of these cases it's the private
0:36
information of the company's customers
0:39
or users that end up on the dark web now
0:41
what we are seeing right now is a group
0:43
of private citizens filing a lawsuit
0:45
saying that this could have and should
0:48
have been prevented an Ali Bank should
0:50
be held responsible for the alleged
0:52
breach now these two lawsuits filed
0:54
within days of each other are very
0:56
similar they recount a reported Cyber
0:58
attack against al Bank One lawsuit
1:00
claims the bank found out about the
1:02
breach in mid July the other on August
1:04
1st now in both lawsuits the plaintiffs
1:07
say their private information like names
1:09
addresses phone numbers and Social
1:12
Security numbers were accessed by an
1:14
unauthorized actor AKA cyber criminals
1:17
the class members in both cases alleg
1:19
that allies should have known the risk
1:21
that financial institutions face with
1:23
the rise in cyber crime and that the
1:25
bank failed to properly protect them I
1:27
spoke with the Cyber uh cyber security
1:30
expert in Charlotte who says while
1:31
companies are also a victim when
1:33
breaches like this happen they have the
1:36
responsibility both ethically and
1:37
legally to protect consumer's personal
1:40
information you should be expecting that
1:43
someone is going to try to steal that
1:45
data because people's personal
1:47
information is valuable When You're
1:49
Expecting that to happen if you are not
1:53
consistently taking a look at your plan
1:56
that you have in place and reorganizing
1:59
and rebuilding and testing and assessing
2:02
and putting better measures in place you
2:05
are more
2:06
vulnerable now the L suit also accuses
2:09
Alli Bank of failing to comply with the
2:11
FTC guidelines both court filings are
2:13
requesting that the bank pay impacted
2:15
consumers now we did reach out to Alli
2:17
Bank regarding the lawsuit and I have
2:19
not heard back now we know Taylor that
2:21
there are uh let's say we got two
2:23
lawsuits on the table could allly also
2:25
face potential fines from Regulators I
2:27
mean it absolutely could so the FTC man
2:29
dates that these companies protect their
2:31
consumer data that's under the
2:33
safeguards rule and what these
2:34
requirements are is they include uh
2:37
email security which is a big way that
2:39
these companies do get hit that's we
2:40
don't know if that's the case here but
2:42
that is a massive um risk that companies
2:44
have is with the emails that coming in
2:45
out we get them here in the news room we
2:47
know to avoid them also data encryption
2:50
and then lastly letting uh impactors
2:52
impacted customers know in a timely
2:55
manner and of course failing to comply
2:56
with these requirements um can lead to
2:59
Hefty fines and lawsuits like the ones
3:00
that we're covering right now I mean
3:02
these measures are there to protect data
3:05
minimize risk and lastly I mean get
3:07
businesses back up and running as
3:08
quickly as possible but you know at the
3:11
end of the day and I did speak with a
3:12
cyber expert about this you cannot 100%
3:16
prevent a data breach from happening we
3:18
know these criminals are only getting
3:20
smarter we see more and more companies
3:21
being impacted by this the goal however
3:24
is to maintain uh to minimize rather
3:26
damage to your company and the customers
3:29
if they are impacted and unfortunately
3:31
cyber security experts say if companies
3:33
are hit once the chances of it happening
3:36
again uh rapidly increase and Taylor
3:39
we've seen this time and time again
3:40
major corporations targeted by cyber
3:43
criminals how is this impacting some
3:45
smaller businesses are they targets as
3:47
well well we know that last year an
3:49
estimated
3:50
3,200 uh cyber attacks happened that's
3:52
an 80% increase from just the year
3:55
before and I think what is the most
3:56
shocking uh data from all of this is
3:59
that 50 % of those cyber attacks
4:01
actually happened to small businesses
4:03
and the Cyber expert that I spoke with
4:05
she says with the small businesses that
4:07
they work with many of them are actually
4:08
unaware that they have to follow the
4:11
same exact FTC guidelines that these big
4:13
corporations are dealing with so not
4:15
only are they at a high risk of a Cyber
4:18
attack but they could also be facing
4:20
fines they could also be facing lawsuits
4:22
if a breach does happen um so yeah I
4:25
mean again both major corporations both
4:29
small businesses is they all are
4:30
vulnerable to these breaches and
4:32
unfortunately it can lead to paying out
4:34
a lot of money to people who are
4:36
impacted but also to Regulators all
4:38
right Taylor thank you some you don't
4:39
think about the small businesses also
4:41
impacted
#Computers & Electronics