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Canadian government data breach class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Todd Sweet filed a class action lawsuit against Her Majesty the Queen as representative of the Government of Canada.
- Why: Sweet claims the government was responsible for a data breach of a number of online government accounts by allegedly failing to properly secure portals that provide access to them.
- Where: The Canadian government class action lawsuit was filed in Federal Court in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Canadian government failed to properly secure portals providing access to online government accounts, including My Service Canada Accounts, from approximately June to August 2020, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Todd Sweet claims he, and “what appears to be” thousands of other individuals, had their accounts left vulnerable to hackers who were able to commit identity theft and Canada Emergency Response Benefit fraud
Sweet claims hackers were also able to access sensitive information during the Canadian government data breach, including Social Insurance Numbers, tax information, birthdates, employment records and direct deposit banking information, among other things.
Thousands of individuals have subsequently suffered damages, Sweet argues, including identity theft, risk of future identity theft, damage to credit reputation, mental distress and financial losses, among other things.
Canadian government data breach result of ‘systemic negligence’ according to lawsuit
The Canadian government is guilty of breach of confidence, systemic negligence and intrusion upon seclusion and is in violation of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, according to the lawsuit.
The Canadian government, meanwhile, has asked that class certification not be granted for the proposed complaint, arguing that “none of the requirements for certification are met.”
While the government acknowledges that it may “owe a private law duty of care to an individual,” in the event there has been “specific interactions between the government and the individual,” it argues Sweet has not “pleaded facts that would support a finding of proximity on this basis,” according to the Canadian government class action.
In related data breach news, consumers were also affected by a data breach in May that exposed the personal information of almost 100,000 Ikea Canada customers.
Last month, meanwhile, StockX agreed to pay $130,000 to resolve claims the company failed to protect the personal information of its customers during a 2019 data breach.
Were you impacted by the Canadian government data breach? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Anthony Leoni and Matthew Burtini of Rice Harbut Elliott LLP.
The Canadian government data breach class action lawsuit is Sweet v. Her Majesty the Queen, Case No. T-982-20, in Federal Court in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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46 thoughts onCanadian government class action alleges 2020 data breach compromised personal information of thousands
The government website was hacked 2X. I was one of the accounts that was apart if the breach. The second time (I do not remember the date) I was told that my info was detected on the dark web. Both times I had to call and have my password and user name reset. This took me hours to do each time. No joke. Now for some reason each and every year including this year I am unable to just log in with my un and pw. Whether it is from the cra site directly or whether it is through one of their partners such as, in my case my bank. It comes back as my password and username have been revoked and I need to call in. In doing so, after about 1hr 15mins waiting I got to talk to someone. The agent asked me all the questions (so I thought) for verification purposes , I answered all of them. However one more question came about my direct deposit info. She wanted all the info on my bank account. I didn’t want to tell her my bank account #, transit# and bank # and asked her to for another question to verify. She said she needed me to answer that one and could not ask me anything else but that one. I know this is not true from years of experiences calling in to get my credentials reset. She did not understand my concern considering the 2 breaches that I had gone through with them. I was getting a bit annoyed at this point as I had asked her more than once to understand and to ask me anything else . She threatened me that she would hang up if I didn’t provide her an answer regarding my direct deposit info. She hung up. I still have not been able to changed my address nor have I had my credentials reset so I could access my account to make important changes such as address change and to receive important info such as my NOA amongst other things. I need to know what gives? EVERY YEAR PROBLEMS PROBLEMS PROBLEMS FOR ME TO GET INTO MY CRA ACCOUNT.
please add me every time its close for me to get payment from the government( on disability) I get a call that I need them due to fraud to my account and call a number, i started blocking the calls and report of fraud
Ass me pls
Add me please