Former Sony Employees File Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

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A data breach class action lawsuit was filed on Dec. 15 against Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., alleging the company did not take adequate measures to prevent a massive data breach, thus comprising the data of 15,000 current and former Sony employees.

Lead plaintiffs Michael Corona and Christina Mathis are both former employees of Sony who have filed this data breach class action lawsuit in California federal court, alleging their personal information was compromised during the November Sony Pictures data breach. Corona and Mathis have asked the court to force Sony Pictures to take steps now, in the aftermath of the massive data breach, to rectify the potential identity fraud for those affected.

According to the Sony Pictures data breach class action lawsuit:

“Sony failed to secure its computer systems, servers and databases despite weaknesses it has known about for years. Their most sensitive data, including over 47,000 Social Security numbers, employment files including salaries, medical information, and anything else that their employer Sony touched, has been leaked to the public, and may even be in the hands of criminals.”

The plaintiffs support their argument that Sony could have prevented the data breach by pointing to an email from Sony’s general counsel and various company internal documents. This email and the documents, obtained during the leaks, state Sony’s network security left the company, and by extension past and present employees, vulnerable to a data breach.

The Sony class action lawsuit also reminds the court that this is not the first time Sony has experienced a data breach. Back in 2011, the company’s PlayStation and Qriocity Network fell victim to a cyberattack, exposing 31 million Sony users data to potential theft. While Sony eventually paid a $15 million settlement to resolve data breach allegations lodged against the entertainment company in multiple consolidated class action lawsuits, the security risks that allegedly allowed for the 2011 security breach were never resolved, thus leaving the door open for the most recent data breach, according to Mathis and Corona’s Sony class action lawsuit.

In the wake of November data breach, Sony initially only offered  current employees identity theft monitoring, though the company eventually offered an extended 12-month period third-party credit monitoring to former Sony employees. However, the plaintiffs of this data breach class action lawsuit argue that Sony’s delay in offering credit monitoring service to ex-employees was too little, too late, as many employees like Corona and Mathis had already purchased identity theft monitoring services at a premium cost.

Corona and Mathis seek to represent themselves in this data breach class action lawsuit, as well as a Class of “All former and current employees in the United States of Sony whose Personally Identifiable Information was compromised by Sony’s security breaches that became public starting in November 2014, and any related security breaches.” The plaintiffs have also asked the court to certify a subclass of California Sony employees whose information was compromised during the data breach.

The plaintiffs are seeking more substantial protection by Sony besides credit monitoring, which does not prevent identity theft, but rather informs individuals that identity theft has already occurred. The Sony Pictures data breach class action lawsuit has asked that Sony provide current and former employees with five years of credit card and banking monitoring services, identity theft insurance, and credit restoration.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lynn Lincoln Sarko, Gretchen Freeman Cappio, Cari Campen Laufenberg and Amy N.L. Hanson of Keller Rohrback LLP.

The Sony Pictures Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Corona, et al v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09600, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On Feb. 26, 2016, the Sony Pictures cyberattack class action lawsuit settlement is now open! Click here to file a Claim Form or visit http://www.cyberattacksettlement.com.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 22, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted “preventive measure” claims in the Sony data breach class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $475.17!