In less than a day after Facebook suffered a data breach, a class action lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California.
Yesterday, we reported on the data breach Facebook suffered. The breach, according to Facebook, affected 50 million. A security vulnerability allowed an unauthorized third party to potentially gain access to those accounts. Facebook says that the vulnerability has since been fixed.
While Facebook no doubt hoped that this would be the end of the story, it seems that the fallout of this latest incident is already growing more dramatic. In less than a day since the breach was reported, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company. The lawsuit was posted on The Verge which notes the following:
Facebook is already facing immense fallout from revelations this morning that a hacker exploited a security flaw in a popular feature of the social network to steal account credentials of as many as 50 million users. The company is now facing a class-action complaint filed on behalf of one California resident, Carla Echavarria, and one Virginia resident, Derick Walker. Both allege that Facebook’s lack of proper security has exposed them and additional potential class members to a significantly increased chance of identity theft as a result of the breach.
The lawsuit was filed today in US District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges Facebook is guilty of unlawful business practices, deceit by concealment, negligence, and violations of California’s Customer Records Act. The plaintiffs want statutory damages and penalties awarded to them and other class members, as well as the providing of credit monitoring services, punitive damages, and the coverage of attorneys’ fees and expenses.
What is impressive is the raw speed in which this lawsuit was filed. Whoever wrote those 28 pages must have an incredible typing speed. Not to say the lawsuit is or isn’t deserved, but the speed is impressive.
Given the speed in which this lawsuit was filed, it suggests that there is a strong possibility that the fallout of this latest breach is not over yet. For all we know, other lawsuits could be filed. There could theoretically be government action on this. Regulators could theoretically get involved. Legal action could theoretically take place in other countries as well given that Facebook has users all over the world. At the end of the day, this could spiral into something a whole lot bigger very quickly.
One thing is for sure, this is not a good way to end the week for Facebook.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
