Companies don’t just maintain the personal identifiable information (PII) of their employees; they often keep similar information on job applicants, even when the applicants don’t get the position. The complaint for this class action alleging that J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. kept such information on job applicants and then did not adequately protect it, leading to a data breach that compromised the information.
The Nationwide Class for this action is all US residents whose PII was or could have been accessed during the data breach announced in the Notice of Data Incident sent out on or around October 18, 2021.
The complaint quotes Hunt’s website as saying that the company “has grown from five trucks and seven trailers to a Fortune 500 company providing a variety of services for customers throughout the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico.” The company purportedly has over 30,000 employees and roughly $10 billion in revenue.
When Hunt considers applicants for job positions, the complaint says, it requires that they turn over their PII, including names and Social Security numbers.
However, the complaint alleges there was “a configuration error in third-party software that [Hunt] used to store driver applications[.]” Because of this, it is possible that between August 17, 2020 and July 2, 2021, unknown persons might have gained access to this information.
The complaint alleges, “On or around August 23, 2021, reports of the Data Breach began surfacing on the Internet.” While Hunt has not said anything about when it found out about the data breach, the complaint says, “it presumably knew or should have known of the Data Breach prior to reports surfacing on the Internet.” The complaint charges that Hunt “admits that the unencrypted PII exposed to ‘unauthorized activity’ included names and Social Security numbers.”
Still, Hunt did not begin telling the victims or state attorneys general about it until around October 18, 2021. According to the complaint, the company has also not explained the vulnerabilities that permitted access to the information. The complaint alleges that the long delay in informing those involved about the data breach has prevented them from taking steps to prevent identity theft and other forms of financial harm.
The complaint alleges that Hunt could have prevented the data breach by taking adequate measures to protect the information in its care—or, the complaint says, it could have deleted the information once the application process was complete, particularly for persons who applied for driving jobs.
Hunt has to date offered the persons whose information was stolen only a year’s worth of identity theft via only one of the three major credit bureaus.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Privacy
Most Recent Case Event
JB Hunt Job Applicant PII Compromised in Data Breach Complaint
November 1, 2021
Companies don’t just maintain the personal identifiable information (PII) of their employees; they often keep similar information on job applicants, even when the applicants don’t get the position. The complaint for this class action alleging that J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. kept such information on job applicants and then did not adequately protect it, leading to a data breach that compromised the information.
JB Hunt Job Applicant PII Compromised in Data Breach ComplaintCase Event History
JB Hunt Job Applicant PII Compromised in Data Breach Complaint
November 1, 2021
Companies don’t just maintain the personal identifiable information (PII) of their employees; they often keep similar information on job applicants, even when the applicants don’t get the position. The complaint for this class action alleging that J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. kept such information on job applicants and then did not adequately protect it, leading to a data breach that compromised the information.
JB Hunt Job Applicant PII Compromised in Data Breach Complaint