Cleveland Brothers Data Breach Affecting At Least 8K Consumers Triggers Class Action Lawsuit

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A proposed class action alleges Cleveland Brothers Holdings, Inc. is responsible for a “massive and preventable” data breach the equipment company purportedly discovered in November 2022.

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The 25-page case claims Cleveland Brothers, a Murrysville, Pennsylvania construction equipment dealership, learned on November 3 of last year that cybercriminals had infiltrated its network servers and accessed the personal information of at least 8,200 consumers, including their full names and Social Security numbers. According to the complaint, Cleveland Brothers kept affected individuals in the dark for roughly three months before informing them of the incident on February 17 of this year.

Even today, the case says, victims have not been told what particular data was stolen, the type of malware used to steal it, and what steps, if any, are being taken to protect their information going forward.

Further, the suit says Cleveland Brothers’ notice of the incident failed to mention that it had allowed unrestricted access to highly sensitive data as a result of  the company’s intentional, willful and/or negligent disregard for standard cybersecurity procedures. As such, the company could have prevented the incident by properly encrypting its servers and heeding earlier warnings of threats to consumers’ private data, the filing charges.

“Defendant’s negligence in safeguarding Representative Plaintiff’s and Class Members’ [personally identifiable information] is exacerbated by repeated warnings and alerts directed to protecting and securing sensitive data, as evidenced by the trending data breach attacks in recent years,” the case adds.

Cleveland Brothers had a legal obligation under state and federal laws to safeguard consumers’ personal information, the suit says. The company’s failure to comply with these statutes has long-lasting and severe ramifications for affected individuals as their information is now in the hands of an “undoubtedly nefarious third party,” the lawsuit stresses.

The complaint explains that data breach victims must now deal with a substantially increased risk of identity theft and fraud, and spend considerable amounts of time and money preventing, detecting and recovering from any misuse of their information.

“Indeed, [victims] are left to further speculate as to the full impact of the Data Breach and how exactly Defendant intends to enhance its information security systems and monitoring capabilities so as to prevent further breaches,” the case reads.

The lawsuit seeks to cover anyone in the United States whose personally identifiable information was exposed to unauthorized third parties as a result of the data breach discovered by Cleveland Brothers on November 3, 2022.

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