Green Valley Pecan Company Hit with Class Action Over May 2022 Data Breach [UPDATE]

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims that negligence on the part of Green Valley Pecan Company led to a data breach that compromised the personal information of over 9,000 current and former employees.

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The 52-page lawsuit says that after Farmers Investment Co. (FICO), which does business as Green Valley Pecan Company, underwent a so-called “network disruption” on May 31 of last year, a subsequent investigation concluded that certain private data stored in its computer systems had been exposed to an unauthorized third party. The suit reports that the cyberattack compromised the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of thousands of current and former employees.

The case argues that the data breach was a direct result of the Arizona-based pecan company’s failure to implement sufficient cybersecurity measures to protect consumers’ private information, which it allegedly stored unencrypted and unredacted in its network.

What’s more, although the company first detected the unusual activity in May 2022, it only began notifying victims of the breach in mid-January of this year, more than six months later, the complaint charges.

Per the filing, the notices themselves neglected to explain how the hackers gained entry into the system, why the company delayed in notifying victims and what steps are being taken to prevent such cyberattacks in the future.

Though Green Valley Pecan Company has apparently offered those affected one year of complimentary identity monitoring services, the lawsuit claims that this gesture falls far short of appropriate relief, as it fails to compensate for the ongoing, lifelong risks of fraud and identity theft that victims now face.

The plaintiff, a Las Vegas resident who worked for the defendant from 1998 to 1999, received notice on January 12 of this year that her personal data had been compromised in the breach, the suit relays. Like other victims, the plaintiff must now contend with a substantially increased risk of financial fraud and other illegal schemes as a result of the defendant’s negligence, the case alleges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose personal information was compromised as a result of the data breach reported by FICO on January 12, 2023.

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