Pacific Guardian class action claims data breach exposed policyholder info

Pacific Guardian data breach class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Christopher Hardy filed a class action lawsuit against Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company Ltd. 
• Why: Hardy claims Pacific Guardian failed to safeguard the personal information of its policyholders during a data breach last month.
• Where: The Pacific Guardian class action lawsuit was filed in Hawai’i federal court. 

Pacific Guardian Life Insurance failed to safeguard the highly-sensitive personal information of more than 167,000 policyholders during a data breach last month, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Christopher Hardy’s class action lawsuit claims Pacific Guardian had an obligation and duty to safeguard the private information of its shareholders and to prevent unauthorized third parties from accessing it. 

“Ultimately, Pacific Guardian failed to fulfill this obligation, as unauthorized cybercriminals breached Pacific Guardian’s information systems and databases and stole vast quantities of Private Information belonging to Pacific Guardian’s policyholders,” the Pacific Guardian data breach class action states. 

Hardy wants to represent a nationwide class and Hawai’i subclass of individuals whose private information was accessed in the Pacific Guardian data breach. 

Pacific Guardian class action: Company failed to apply ‘reasonable’ security protections

Hardy’s class action lawsuit argues the data breach occurred as a result of a failure by Pacific Guardian to “implement reasonable security protections to safeguard its information systems and databases.” 

Pacific Guardian also allegedly failed to detect the data breach in a timely manner — 11 days passed before the company realized its systems had been compromised, the class action says. Furthermore, the company also failed to notify individuals affected by the incident in a timely manner, the Pacific Guardian class action alleges.

“Despite determining the extent of the Data Breach on September 5, 2023, Defendant waited over seven months to notify Plaintiff and the Subclass,” the Pacific Guardian data breach class action says. 

Hardy argues Pacific Guardian also failed to inform the public prior to the incident that its data security practices were “deficient and inadequate.” 

The Pacific Guardian class action lawsuit claims the company is guilty of negligence and negligence per se, breach of implied contract, invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment, and of violating Hawaiʻi’s Unfair Deceptive Acts or Practices Statute and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. 

Hardy demands a jury trial and requests declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of compensatory, consequential, general, statutory and punitive or exemplary damages for himself and all class members. 

Similar data breach class action lawsuits have targeted multiple companies in recent months, including AT&T, Change Healthcare, GardaWorld, SouthState Bank and WellNow Urgent Care, among others. 

Were you affected by the Pacific Guardian data breach ? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Margery S. Bronster and Robert M. Hatch of Bronster Fujichaku Robbins and Daniel O. Herrera and Nickolas J. Hagman of Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP. 

The Pacific Guardian data breach class action lawsuit is Hardy, et al. v. Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company, Ltd., Case No. 1:24-cv-00195, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai’i.

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