Bankers Life and Casualty Company Hit with Class Action Over November 2023 Cyberattack

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Bankers Life and Casualty Company faces a proposed class action over a cyberattack discovered in November 2023 that compromised customers’ personal data.

Did you receive a data breach letter from Bankers Life? Let us know here.

The 35-page data breach lawsuit relays that on November 29 of last year, the Chicago-based insurance company detected unauthorized third-party access to its network and certain private information stored therein. Per the suit, the exposed data may have included customers’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and policy numbers.

According to the Bankers Life data breach notice, the incident involved a “SIM swapping” attack targeting the cellular account of a company senior officer. The notice shares that the cyberattack was made possible because a retailer for a major wireless carrier allowed the executive’s phone number to be swapped with what is believed was the hacker’s phone without authorization.

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The case contends the incident was a direct result of the company’s failure to implement proper cybersecurity protocols to safeguard customer data, which was allegedly stored unencrypted and in a condition “vulnerable to cyberattacks.”

In addition, the complaint claims Bankers Life’s notification of victims was untimely and inadequate. Although the company purports to have discovered the data breach in late November 2023, it waited until January 26, 2024—nearly two months later—to distribute notice letters to affected individuals, the filing asserts.

What’s more, the notice did not mention “vital” details, such as whether the defendant was able to contain or put a stop to the cybersecurity threat, the lawsuit adds.

The plaintiff, a Texas resident and Bankers Life customer, received notice in late January of this year informing him that his private data had been compromised in the breach, the suit says.

As of the date of the filing, the company has done “next to nothing” to protect the plaintiff and other victims from the harms caused by the data breach, which includes a significantly increased risk of identity theft or fraud, the case claims.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone Bankers Life has identified as being among the individuals impacted by the data breach, including those who were sent notice of the incident.

Did you receive a data breach letter from Bankers Life? Let us know here.