Network Security News

Judge dismisses most claims in Hannaford data breach

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A U.S. District Court judge has tossed out all but one of the civil claims against Hannaford Bros., the Maine-based grocery chain that suffered a data breach last year that exposed more than 4 million credit card users to identity theft and fraud.

In dismissing the claims, judge Brock Hornby ruled that consumers could not seek damages if they did not suffer financial loss.

Hornby wrote in his opinion that consumers with no fraudulent charges on their accounts could not seek damages under Maine law, nor could those who might have had fraudulent charges on their accounts that were later reimbursed, Computerworld.com reported.

The judge allowed only one complaint to stand - from a woman who said she had not been reimbursed by her bank for fraudulent charges on her bank account, according to Computerworld.com.

Hannaford's attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, filed just days after the breach was made public on March 17, 2008.

Between December 7, 2007 and March 10, 2008, the supermarket's data security was breached by hackers who stole approximately 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and PIN numbers from Hannaford customers.

Around 1,800 fraudulent transactions had been made by the time Hannaford acknowledged the breach.