DUBLIN, Calif.–Nearly a year after a ransomware attack forced portions of Patelco Credit Union’s online and branch networks offline for an extended period of time, it has settled a class action lawsuit for $7.25 million, according to a new report, which said it has also found member info on the dark web.
The outage affected more than one-million Patelco members. The credit union was hit by the criminal group RansomHub.
Patelco has reached a settlement with 12 named plaintiffs in Alameda County Superior Court, Scott Edward Cole, an Oakland consumer lawyer for Cole & Van Note who represented the plaintiffs, told SFPublicPress.org.
Cole said the plaintiffs are waiting for the court to formally approve the settlement so the documents can be sent to other members of the class after a hearing that was scheduled for June 10, the report stated.
Settlement terms include creating a $7.25 million fund to be shared by victims affected by the ransomware attack and system shutdown of Patelco in 2024, SFPublicPress.org stated.
Member PII Obtained
The $9.4-billion Patelco has acknowledged hackers gained access to members’ names, dates of birth, home addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and email addresses. Plaintiffs sued Patelco for negligence and violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act, and “negotiations were adversarial” in nature, according to the settlement.
Plaintiffs in this case “have various ways of demonstrating that the damages they suffered were traceable to the Patelco data breach,” Cole told SFPublicPress.org.
Member Info on Dark Web
Meanwhile, San Francisco Public Press said it has found leaked data from the cyberattack posted on the dark web and reached out to some of the people who had their personal information exposed.
“One person asked not to be contacted again. Another declined to comment and a third person said she was ‘scared’ and was being ‘cautious.’ The Public Press reporter for this story was also affected by the data breach,” San Francisco Public Press reported.
$100,000 Fine
California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation fined Patelco $100,000 through a consent order in February and ordered the credit union improve its cybersecurity systems and practices. Patelco has paid the penalty and submitted an action plan and quarterly progress report to improve its cybersecurity, agency spokesperson Daniel Emmons wrote in an email to San Francisco Public Press.
