$11M Zywave data breach settlement gets final approval

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Update: 

• A Texas federal judge gave final approval to an $11 million settlement resolving claims insurance software provider Zywave Inc. failed to protect customers’ personal information during a security breach in February 2021.
• In an order issued Jan. 4, U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey gave the green light to the deal, which will cover thousands of dollars in reimbursement costs and pay hundreds in cash to a California subclass per the agreement.
• The breach allegedly exposed the information of more than 4 million insurance customers. The plaintiffs claimed Zywave and its subsidiary, Insurance Technologies Corp., failed to protect their data or notify them in a timely manner that a security breach occurred.

(June 18, 2021)

A pair of consumers claim that Zywave Inc failed to protect them and other clients from a February data breach, despite being warned by federal law enforcement agencies that they were a target, in a class action lawsuit filed Friday.  

Lead plaintiffs Jay Heath and Edward Shapiro want to represent Zywave clients nationwide whose personal information was allegedly exposed in the hack. They say that the insurance software company not only failed to protect their data, they failed to notify Class Members of the breach until months after it occurred.  

Heath and Shapiro say they are clients of Zywave and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Insurance Technologies Corp (ITC), also a defendant in the lawsuit.  They claim that hackers managed to breach Zywave’s cloud-based insurance agency management system on Feb. 27, 2021. Cybercriminals allegedly made off with the names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, usernames, passwords, and other identifying information belonging to not only the companies’ clients, but their clients, mainly small insurance agencies, potential customers as well.  

“Not only did hackers steal the PII of Plaintiffs and class members, but, upon information and belief, criminals have already used the PII to attempt to steal certain of Plaintiffs’ and class members’ identities.” 

Zywave and ITC allegedly knew and investigated the data breach throughout March, but failed to warn affected clients until May.  

Heath and Shapiro say that Zywave and IHC failed to update their security systems prior to the data breach despite warnings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other national security agencies.  

Ironically, despite its own security flaws, the president of IHC posted a video warning its clients that they are targets and urging them to “consider the information” they store, notes the class action lawsuit.  

Zywave and IHC failed to consider their systems for storing information, claim the plaintiffs who want to represent consumers whose data was exposed in the February data breach, along with Maryland and Pennsylvania subclasses.  

The class action lawsuit wants Zywave and IHC to pay for credit monitoring for Class Members, as well as damages. The plaintiffs also want a court order forcing the companies to beef up their data security measures to protect future clients from a similar data breach.  

Were you affected by the Zywave data breach? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.  

The plaintiffs are represented by Joe Kendall of the Kendall Law Group, PLLC, M. Anderson Berry and Alex Sauerwein of Clayeo C. Arnold APLC, and Gary M. Klinger, Gary E. Mason, and David K. Lietz of Mason Lietz & Klinger LLP. 

The Zywave Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Heath v. Insurance Technologies Corp., et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-01444 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division.  

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