Penalty Amount
$500,000
Consumers Affected
80,000
New York Attorney General Letitia James settled with auto insurance company Noblr for $500,000 over a data breach that exposed personal information of approximately 80,000 New York residents. The breach, discovered in January 2021, was caused by Noblr’s failure to implement reasonable data security safeguards, including exposing plaintext driver’s license numbers and failing to monitor site traffic for malicious activity. In addition to the monetary penalty, Noblr must enhance its data security program, implement monitoring systems, and maintain a data inventory of private information.
Noblr must pay a $500,000 monetary penalty to New York State. Additionally, Noblr is required to enhance its web application defenses, maintain a comprehensive information security program designed to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of private information, develop and maintain a data inventory of private information with reasonable safeguards, implement reasonable authentication procedures for access to private information, and maintain a logging and monitoring system to alert on suspicious activity within their systems.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor agreements with insurance providers, auto-related service companies, and any entities that collect driver’s license numbers or other sensitive personal information to ensure they include explicit requirements for reasonable data security safeguards, including prohibitions on storing sensitive data in plaintext, mandatory system traffic monitoring, reasonable authentication for data access, and maintenance of a data inventory of private information. Contracts should also require vendors to implement logging and monitoring systems to detect suspicious activity, specify breach notification timelines and penalties for inadequate security, and prohibit collection of personal information from residents of states where the vendor does not offer products or services, as Noblr collected New York residents’ data despite not operating in the state.
Entity
Noblr
Industry
InsuranceOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-secures-500000-auto-insurance-company-over-data-breach
noblr aod 2024
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/noblr-aod-2024.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"Noblr"
"December 19, 2024"
"New York Attorney General Letitia James"
"paying $500,000 in penalties"
"more than 80,000 New Yorkers"
"failed to adopt reasonable safeguards to protect private information"
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$18.0M
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