NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York state sued Allstate on Monday, accusing the insurer’s National General unit of failing to report a data breach that exposed drivers’ license numbers, and not developing reasonable safeguards to protect policyholders’ private information.
The lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James was filed in a state court in Manhattan, and seeks civil fines.
Allstate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New York said the case arose from back-to-back breaches in 2020 and 2021 when hackers targeted National General’s online auto insurance quoting tools, exposing license numbers of more than 165,000 New Yorkers and nearly 200,000 people overall.
According to the complaint, National General did not alert drivers or New York state agencies about the first breach, which occurred between August and November 2020, and needed about three months to uncover the second breach in January 2021.
New York said National General violated the state’s Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act for failing to protect customer information, and violated state consumer protection laws by misleading customers about its safeguards.
Allstate, based in Northbrook, Illinois, bought National General for about $4 billion in January 2021.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Deepa Babington)
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