Slickwraps Class Action Alleges Private Data Leaked

Following a data breach, consumers have filed a Slickwraps class action lawsuit against the company alleging that it failed to protect consumer data.

Slickwraps, an electronic case company which specializes in iPhone protection, announced the data breach on Feb. 21.

According to the company, around 858,000 consumers may have had their names, home addresses, phone numbers, purchase histories, and email addresses accessed by hackers.

Although Slickwraps alerted consumers in a separate announcement, customers of the company may have learned of the data breach in a different, bizarre fashion.

According to a recent Slickwraps class action lawsuit, nearly 400,000 customers were sent an email from the hackers stating: “If you’re reading this, it’s too late. We have your data.” The emails, sent from hello@slickwraps.com, allegedly included each consumer’s home address under “here’s where you live” as a way to verify that the breach was real.

“So what are we doing with your data? Not much,” the hackers assured in their email.

The hackers reportedly informed email recipients that they hacked Slickwraps’ data base through a now-deleted post on Medium. The post’s author, a purported cybersecurity analysts, allegedly discovered a vulnerability on Slickwraps’ website designed to allow consumers to create custom phone cases. Using this vulnerability, the author was reportedly “able to gain full access to the Slickwraps’ web site.”

The Slickwraps class action states that based on this discovery, the data breach hackers at issue took advantage of the vulnerability and accessed sensitive consumer data.

The email sent to consumers allegedly highlighted the vulnerability in Slickwraps’ cybersecurity, with the hackers warning consumers that “Right now, anybody can do what we just did, and they might do something really [s*****] with the same data we took.”

According to the hackers, they “don’t want that,” adding that “the guy who wrote the Medium article didn’t either.” The hackers go on to say that the Medium article author “warned Slickwraps and they didn’t do [s***].”

The author allegedly contacted the company through Twitter on Feb. 15, imploring the company to protect their information. Additionally, the CEO of the company was reportedly contacted through a direct email.

Despite these warnings, Slickwraps failed to take action, the plaintiffs say. In their email to consumers, the hackers encouraged recipients to reply to the message and contact Slickwraps on social media to tell the company “how pissed you are.”

“Now that you’ve officially contacted Slickwraps about this breach, you’re able to contact your local authority on data privacy,” the hackers concluded. “Good luck!”

Plaintiffs Albert Almeida, Mark Munoz and Angelo Victoriano claim that Slickwraps negligently failed to comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines regarding cybersecurity.

This failure allegedly contributed to the website vulnerability and subsequent data breach.

“The Slickwraps Data Breach was a direct result of its abject failure to implement adequate and reasonable cyber-security procedures and protocols necessary to protect customer PII,” the Slickwraps data breach class action lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs also note that Slickwraps and its CEO were contacted about the cybersecurity vulnerability days in advance of the data breach but failed to do anything.

“Despite knowing about the Data Breach for several days, Slickwraps made the conscious and deliberate decision to not inform the public and only came forward when it feared its inaction would be disclosed to the public,” the plaintiffs argue in the Slickwraps class action.

According to the plaintiffs, Slickwraps’ subpar response continued when they “belatedly and meekly” apologized in an email statement – reportedly sent from the same email used by the hackers. The email announcement allegedly included “many falsehoods” and made inaccurate or misleading statements about the data breach.

Specifically, the plaintiffs note that Slickwraps promised consumers that their information was safe if they even checked out as a guest, despite the fact that many recipients of the hacker email had checked out as guests.

The Slickwraps class action lawsuit claims that the plaintiffs and other affected consumers will likely face long-term consequences from the data breach. Any stolen data is allegedly at risk for being sold on a “robust ‘cyber black market’” specializing in personal information. This information can be used by identity thieves to commit personal, medical and financial fraud.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of consumers whose information was compromised by the Slickwraps data breach. They also seek to represent a subclass of the same consumers from California.

On behalf of themselves and these proposed Class Members, the plaintiffs seek restitution, disgorgement, actual damages, compensatory damage, statutory damages, punitive damages, penalties, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Were you affected by the Slickwraps data breach? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Plaintiffs and the proposed Class are represented by William Litvak of Dapeer Rosenblit & Litvak LLP, Rachel Dapeer of Dapeer Law PA and Gary M. Klinger of Kozonis & Klinger Ltd.

The Slickwraps Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Almeida, et al. v. Slickwraps Inc., Case No. 2:20-at-00256, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

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