Zachary Chernik, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T Inc. and DirecTV in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The case, numbered 1:24-cv-03054, was filed on April 17, 2024.
The plaintiff alleges that the defendants failed to secure and safeguard sensitive customer information. According to the complaint, AT&T learned about a potential data breach involving over 70 million customers' personal information nearly three years ago but failed to investigate it adequately. Instead, they denied the allegations and continued their operations as usual.
The compromised data includes customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and AT&T account numbers and passcodes. The plaintiff argues that this information was targeted, compromised, and unlawfully accessed due to the data breach.
Chernik is seeking judgment against AT&T for their alleged failure to protect consumers' personal identifiable information (PII) from a foreseeable and preventable cyber-attack by implementing adequate cybersecurity procedures and protocols. He also claims that as a result of the data breach, he and approximately 73 million other class members suffered concrete injuries including invasion of privacy; theft of their PII; lost or diminished value of PII; uncompensated lost time and opportunity costs associated with attempting to mitigate the actual consequences of the Data Breach; loss of benefit of the bargain; statutory damages; nominal damages; and increased risk to their PII.