The Illinois Credit Union League is the newest plaintiff in CUNA’s class-action suit against Equifax over the credit bureau’s recent data breach.
The league said it wants to fulfill its mission to protect member credit unions from losses caused by merchant and vendor data breaches, according to a press release issued Monday.
“We are joining the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) in the fight to hold Equifax accountable for this grievous data breach impacting more that 145 million American consumers,” Illinois Credit Union League President/CEO Tom Kane said. “This is the latest of a growing number of high-profile data breaches, but it will likely turn out to be the worst because of the type of sensitive information that was exposed. Equifax was unbelievably careless by ignoring warnings to make a simple — but critical — security patch to their software and the negative effects of this breach may be felt by credit unions and their members for years to come.”
The Credit Union Association of New Mexico, the California-Nevada Credit Union League and the Michigan Credit Union League have already joined CUNA’s suit, which was originally filed in a Georgia District Court earlier this month. Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union and Greater Cincinnati Credit Union are also plaintiffs in the suit.
Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Daleville, Alabama, has $1.2 billion in assets and about 98,000 members. Greater Cincinnati Credit Union is a state-chartered credit union headquartered in Cincinnati.
The Equifax breach, announced September 7, was first thought to affect 143 million U.S. consumers. Compromised information primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and in some cases driver’s license numbers. The breach also jeopardized credit card numbers for about 209,000 people, as well as dispute documents for about 182,000 consumers. A subsequent forensic investigation announced on October 2 found that an additional 2.5 million U.S. consumers were affected, bringing to the total to 145.5 million people.
At least four credit unions have also brought their own suits against Equifax for damages related to its data breach, court records show.
Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Aventa Credit Union and New Castle, Penn.-based First Choice Federal Credit Union, along with the New Orleans-based Bank of Louisiana, filed a class-action complaint against Equifax in U.S. District Court on September 22. Similar to a separate class-action suit filed by Summit Credit Union on September 11, the three financial institutions allege that Equifax failed to secure its website, ignored warnings from security experts and took too long to disclose the breach.
Gulf Winds Federal Credit Union, which is headquartered in Pensacola, Florida, later filed a suit of its own on October 3. That credit union has $660 million in assets and about 60,000 members.
Madison, Wis.-based Summit Credit Union has $2.8 billion in assets and about 167,000 members. Aventa Credit Union has $175 million in assets and about 23,700 members. First Choice FCU has $44 million in assets and 6,700 members. The financial institutions claimed they will incur financial losses related to card reissue, fraud and fraud prevention.
