Fergie's Tech Blog

Hannaford Data Breach Case Ruling Coming

Linda McGlasson writes on BankInfoSecurity.com:

A U.S. District Court judge will decide in the next few days whether the Hannaford Bros. data breach class action suit will go to trial.

Judge D. Brock Hornby heard final arguments on April 1 in the U.S. District Court, Portland, ME on the class action suit brought against the supermarket chain that had a data breach exposing more than 4 million credit and debit cards last March.

Hornby's pending ruling will decide if parts or all of the case will go to trial. Hannaford's attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, filed days after the breach was made public on March 17, 2008. Plaintiffs' attorneys requested Hornby certify the case as a class-action suit and go to trial.

The class action lawsuit poses questions as to the level of merchant responsibility to secure electronic data that is processed with every credit or debit card purchase. It also asks what should the consequences be when the data is taken by hackers.

posted by Fergie @ 4/09/2009 11:18:00 PM