May 2023 Florida Water Products Data Breach Triggers Class Action

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Florida Water Products, LLC (FWP) faces a proposed class action lawsuit over a May 2023 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of thousands of people.

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The 30-page lawsuit alleges inadequate cybersecurity on the part of the pool and spa equipment distributor is to blame for the data breach, which exposed at least the names and Social Security numbers of current and former FWP employees and those of its affiliates.

According to the FWP data breach notice letter, the “data security incident” targeted a repository of “legacy data”—i.e., information stored in outdated systems or formats—housed in its network. Per the notice, a subsequent investigation determined that an unauthorized third party may have gained access to FWP’s systems and acquired certain information stored within the legacy database.

The suit relays that although it is “currently unknown” what specific dates and for how long cybercriminals had “unfettered access” to the network, the data breach is believed to have occurred between May 22 and May 28, 2023.

The case contends that FWP’s failure to implement proper cybersecurity protocols and train its employees in data security made the information in its care an “easy target[] for cybercriminals.”

To make matters worse, the company’s notice letter was delayed and inadequate, the complaint claims. The plaintiff, an employee of FWP affiliate Aquarius Supply, says he did not receive notice from the defendant until early December 2023, almost seven months after the data breach purportedly occurred.

In its notice letter, FWP “obfuscated the nature of the breach” and failed to provide critical details about the incident, such as how many people were affected, how hackers gained access to the system and why it took so long to begin notifying victims of the unauthorized disclosure of their sensitive data, the filing charges.

The data breach lawsuit alleges that FWP’s untimely and insufficient notice left victims “vulnerable to identity theft without any warnings to monitor their financial accounts or credit reports to prevent unauthorized use” of their private information.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone whose personal information was compromised in the Florida Water Products data breach, including those who received notice of the incident.

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