Utility Trailer Facing Class Action Over 2021 Data Breach Affecting Current, Former Employees

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Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company faces a proposed class action in the wake of a cyberattack that supposedly compromised the highly sensitive personal information of tens of thousands of current and former employees and their families. 

The 36-page suit says that information compromised in the April 2021 incident, which apparently was not discovered until November, includes, at minimum, the full names and Social Security numbers of 28,703 people. Victims of the Utility Trailer cyberattack now face a substantial and present risk of identity theft and fraud, the lawsuit states. 

According to the case, the cyberattack would have been discovered sooner had Utility Trailer, a designer and manufacturer of dry freight and refrigerated vans, flatbed trailers and Tautliner curtain-sided trailers, “properly managed their property.” The lawsuit contends that the mechanism used to execute the data breach was “a known and foreseeable risk” to the company, who was thus on notice that failing to bolster its cybersecurity left current and former employees’ data in a dangerous condition. 

“Plaintiff’s and Class Members’ identities are now at risk because of Defendant’s negligent conduct since the Private Information that Defendant collected and maintained is now in the hands of data thieves,” the complaint reads. 

The lawsuit says that around February 11, 2022, Utility Trailer began notifying current and former employees and state attorneys general about a data breach it experienced on or about April 25, 2021. The company’s data breach notice letters relayed that Utility Trailer’s security team “became aware of suspicious activity” impacting its computer systems in April, and that an unknown actor may have “viewed or taken” certain information during a period of unauthorized access that month, the suit says. 

“Incredibly, the cyberthieves had unfettered access to Defendant’s computer systems for 20 days without Defendant’s knowledge,” the complaint alleges. “Even worse, Defendant did not discover the Data Breach until seven (7) months later.” 

Per the case, Utility Trailer offered data breach victims one year of complimentary access to credit monitoring and identity restoration services through Experian. 

The lawsuit alleges Utility Trailer failed to comply with Federal Trade Commission guidelines and acceptable industry standards as far as its cybersecurity infrastructure, “thereby opening the door to the Cyber-Attack and causing the data breach.” 

The case looks to cover all persons whose private information was compromised as a result of the Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company data breach that was discovered on or about May 20, 2021 and who were sent notice of the breach. 

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