TWO RECENT FEDERAL COURT DECISIONS MAY SlGNAL NEW APPROACH TO DATA BREACH CLASS RCTION LIT IGATION

摘要

etwork data breaches and theft of electronically stored personal information have dramatically increased in recent years, giving rise to a litany of class action lawsuits against businesses and organizations that hold and/or transact personal information. In April 2011, Sony Corporation of America became part of a class action lawsuit that was filed in the Northern District of California, on behalf of potentially 12.3 million users who had their credit card numbers stolen off of their PlayStation® network. In October 2011, a veteran and a military family filed a class-action lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the US Department of Defense and its contractor, TRICARE, seeking $4.9 billion dollars in potential damages from the theft of a computer tape containing personal information of 4-9 million beneficiaries of TRICARE.