First American Class Action Filed Over Massive Data Breach

A class action lawsuit claims that First American Title Insurance Co. ignored warnings about its cybersecurity making it vulnerable to a massive data breach.

An estimated 885 million mortgage records were exposed in the breach that was recently announced by the cybersecurity website KrebsOnSecurity.

Lead plaintiff David Gritz says the exposed information includes personal details about home buyers and sellers, including bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, financial and tax records, and images of drivers’ licenses.

“Despite explicitly promising customers robust data security as part of the high cost of title services, First American allowed anyone to access the sensitive files of millions of customers,” alleges the First American data leak class action lawsuit.

The First American Title Insurance class action claims the company failed to implement even the most “rudimentary security measures.”

First American, collectively First American Financial Corporation and First American Title Company, represents the largest title insurer in the nation, earning $5.3 billion each year. Together, the companies offer title insurance, escrow maintenance, document signing services, and accounting.

However, the companies used a simple url to give customers access to their mortgage documents electronically, says the plaintiff.

“Suppose that you are a First American customer. The company provides you with a URL to access your documents on its website. That URL might end in ‘DocumentID= 000000075.’ Now suppose you want to access someone else’s personal file. Type the same URL but alter the Document ID number by one digit—say, ‘DocumentID= 000000076’—and someone else’s personal file will appear. Change the numbers again (and again), and you will reveal still more personal files,” the class action explains.

According to the First American data breach class action lawsuit, it was through this simple system that hundreds of millions of mortgage documents were exposed.

“Because First American breached promises and was negligent in its data security, the American dream of home ownership is now a financial security nightmare, as individuals who did business with this company face a serious threat of identity theft or other financial harms,” contends the First American Title Insurance class action.

Further, Gritz says that he and others overpaid for First American title services because the data security and privacy promised by the company was not provided.

First American had been notified of the flaws in its security systems, alleges the plaintiff. According to the class action, a real estate developer realized that he had access to a number of First American files that he should not have had access to.

The First American data breach class action lawsuit claims that despite the real estate developers attempts, along with other cybersecurity experts, to reach out to First American about exposure issues, there was no response from the company except to eventually disable the portion of their website where the information could be accessed.

The plaintiff contends that this move is too little, too late – his and other First American customers’ information has already been breached, exposing them to the threats of identity theft and fraud.

The First American Title Insurance Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Gritz v. First American Financial Corp., et al., Case No. 8:19-­cv-­01009, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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If First American handled the title insurance for a real estate transaction you were part of, you may qualify to join this First American data breach class action lawsuit investigation.

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