Altman Specialty Plants September 2023 Data Breach Triggers Class Action Lawsuit

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims lax cybersecurity on the part of Altman Specialty Plants resulted in a “massive” data breach reportedly discovered by the company in September 2023.

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The 33-page Altman Specialty Plants data breach lawsuit says the horticultural grower purports to have detected unauthorized access to certain computer systems on September 11 of last year. An investigation determined that private data stored in Altman’s network was compromised during the intrusion, the case shares.

Per the complaint, the impacted information included at least individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial and payment card details, driver’s license and passport numbers, usernames and passwords, employer identification numbers, and health insurance and medical information.

Despite repeated warnings and public announcements of cyberattacks in recent years, Altman failed to take necessary data security measures to properly protect the sensitive information in its care, the data breach suit alleges. The filing contends that the incident could have been prevented entirely had the company adequately secured its network and encrypted the information it housed.

The privacy lawsuit claims that as a result of Altman’s negligence, data breach victims’ personal information is now in the hands of an “undoubtedly nefarious third party,” which can use the data to defraud impacted individuals and commit a variety of other cybercrimes.

To make matters worse, Altman concealed the existence and scope of the incident for an unreasonable amount of time, the class action suit asserts. According to the case, the company only began to notify victims this month, a year after it purportedly discovered the network breach.

Even today, affected individuals remain “in the dark” regarding what precise information was stolen and what steps, if any, are being taken to safeguard their data going forward, the complaint charges.

The Altman Specialty Plants lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was exposed to unauthorized third parties as a result of the data breach allegedly discovered by the defendant on or before September 11, 2023.

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