In a recent Daily Business Review article examining the rise in data breaches among companies, Shutts & Bowen LLP’s Tampa partner Ella Shenhav discusses the resulting rise in class action lawsuits.
According to the DBR article, hackers are constantly targeting large companies to steal their data, and data breaches have become not a matter of if, but when a company will face them. One recent breach involving AT&T in March 2024 saw millions of customers in the United States having their data stolen by a ransomware group named UNC5537. When making a statement on the incident, AT&T disclosed that Snowflake, a third-party data cloud company, was involved in the compromised customer data.
Ella spoke to the DBR about the plethora of class action lawsuits that are coming up and the “tug-of-war” that can unfold in court.
“We’re seeing more and more class actions involving data breaches all the time,” said Ella. She added that although most of these cases eventually settle a lack of standards and regulations regarding privacy and cybersecurity remain problematic for companies.
“It’s really hard to predict how they’re going to turn out, unless you are suing a company that just had no cybersecurity measures in place whatsoever,” said Ella. “If the company had some cybersecurity measures in place, some privacy policies and procedures, and they followed them, then it really becomes a tug-of-war.”
To read the full article, please click here.
About Ella A. Shenhav
Ella Shenhav is a partner in the Tampa office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where she is a member of the Business Litigation Practice Group. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), accredited by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Ella focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and on privacy and data protection. She has represented large and small businesses, financial institutions, employers, entrepreneurs and other individuals in successfully resolving, among other matters: business torts; privacy and data protection compliance and litigation matters; contract disputes; employment and non-compete disputes; creditors’ rights; securities litigation; real estate-related litigation; shareholder disputes; and claims of unfair and deceptive trade practices.