Dallas-Based Frontier Communications Hit with Multiple Class Action Lawsuits

The Dallas-based company Frontier Communications is facing at least six class action lawsuits after it was hit with a cyber data breach attack in April. The widespread attack resulted in the personally identifiable information (PII) of over 750,000 customers being stolen by the criminal ransomware group RansomHub. Nearly 90,000 of those victims are Texans.

Three of those lawsuits were filed in the Northern District of Texas earlier this month and accused the business of not doing enough to safeguard and properly maintain its network systems and databases. As a result of the company’s negligence and recklessness, the plaintiffs say that they and other victims are now more susceptible to identity theft. One lawsuit maintains that “Frontier knew or should have known that its electronic records would be targeted by cybercriminals.”

Frontier detected the attack on April 14 when the IT department noted abnormal activity on the company’s networks. According to RansomHub, Frontier ignored contact from the criminal group for nearly two months. The contact was likely to demand a ransom payment in exchange for the stolen data. After Frontier ignored and failed to comply with the demand, the criminal group published the stolen data. Among the data were names, birthdates, social security numbers, addresses, and other personal information.

Frontier disclosed that it was the victim of a cyberattack to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May. Under the SEC’s disclosure rules, companies are required to report cybersecurity incidents within four business days.

In its disclosure notice to the SEC, Frontier shared that “based on our investigation, we have determined that the third party was likely a cybercrime group, which gained access to, among other information, personally identifiable information,” and that Frontier had “engaged cybersecurity experts and have notified law enforcement authorities.” Frontier also noted in its disclosure that the company does not believe there was any impact on the financial information of staff or customers.

One recently filed lawsuit maintains that “Plaintiff and Class Members must now and for years into the future closely monitor their medical and financial accounts to guard against identity theft. As a result of Defendant’s unreasonable and inadequate data security practices, Plaintiff and Class Members have suffered numerous actual and concrete injuries and damages.”

Frontier serves over 1.7 million residential and commercial customers across 25 states. The company has not issued a statement in response to the cyber attack.