Data Breach: Class Action Alleges TTEC Services Left Employee Info Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

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Customer experience company TTEC Services Corporation faces a proposed class action over a data breach discovered last September that reportedly affected at least 100,000 current and former employees.

The 37-page lawsuit out of Colorado claims TTEC, a company who helps manage customer support and online and over-the-phone sales for the likes of Bank of America, Best Buy, Credit Karma, Dish Network, Verizon and others, failed to take reasonable steps to protect employees’ personally identifiable information, including names and Social Security numbers, from unauthorized access, and instead left their data “in a condition vulnerable to cyberattacks.”

Per the suit, TTEC’s failure to safeguard employees’ information has exposed them to a “substantial and present risk” of identity theft and fraud.

“Plaintiff and Class Members must now and in the future closely monitor their financial accounts to guard against identity theft,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit says TTEC maintained employee information “in a reckless manner” that allowed unauthorized actors to access the company’s network between March 31 and September 12, 2021. According to the complaint, TTEC discovered on September 12 that “certain devices in its network” had been encrypted with ransomware, and thereafter determined that employees’ names and Social Security numbers had been compromised.

The case claims TTEC fell short of its contractual, industry-standard and common law obligations to take reasonable steps to secure employees’ information, including by encrypting their data, training employees, implementing available technology to bolster its systems’ security, “act[ing] reasonably to prevent foreseeable harm” and providing timely notice to individuals whose information was compromised.

“TTEC had the resources necessary to prevent the Data Breach but neglected to adequately invest in security measures, despite its obligation to protect such information,” the complaint alleges. “Accordingly, TTEC breached its common law, statutory, and other duties owed to Plaintiff and Class Members.”

According to the suit, the consequences of the data breach will be “long lasting and severe” given victims could face the fraudulent use of their information for many years to come.

The case looks to represent anyone whose private information was maintained on the defendant’s computer systems that were compromised in the data breach and who was sent notice of the breach.

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