Caveat Vendor

CBR to Class Members: For Your Troubles, Credit Monitoring

February 09, 2013

By Paul Hastings Professional

In a follow-up to our earlier post on Cbr Systems Inc.’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over a data privacy breach, Cbr has reached a preliminary settlement with the data subjects whose information may have been compromised as a result of that breach.

As we noted yesterday, Cbr Systems entered into a settlement with the FTC regarding the breach of sensitive personal information of nearly 300,000 customers in December 2010 when four backup tapes, a laptop, an external hard drive, a USB drive and other materials were stolen from an employee’s personal vehicle.

Two years and one class action later, Cbr is making up for its alleged mistakes. The class action settlement, which was initially approved by a federal judge in California on Thursday, requires Cbr to offer class members a two-year subscription to a credit monitoring protection package. The company also has agreed to provide cash reimbursements to any customer who becomes a victim of identity theft as a result of the 2010 breach. As in its settlement with FTC announced on January 28th, Cbr will implement enhanced data security measures. If the class settlement is approved, the class will be certified and will include everyone whose personal information was believed to have been on the stolen equipment.