Accellion Data Breach

On February 1, 2021, the Office of the Washington State Auditor (“SAO”) announced that the personal information of approximately 1.6 million individuals in the State of Washington was compromised in a data security breach of its file transfer software vendor, Accellion. Accellion is a software company that provides hosted file transfer services. Beginning as early as December 2020, and continuing into January 2021, attackers exploited vulnerabilities in Accellion’s file transfer software to gain unauthorized access to files that were being transferred. As a result, an unauthorized individual was able to gain access to data being used by SAO, including the claims information of 1.6 million individuals who filed for unemployment benefits with the State of Washington. The compromised personal information includes names, social security numbers and/or driver’s license or state identification numbers, dates of birth, bank account numbers and bank routing numbers, and places of employment.

On February 2, 2021, Tousley Brain Stephens filed a complaint against Accellion for negligence and violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act. Below is a copy of Plaintiff’s complaint.

When the time comes, we will ask the court to allow the case against Accellion to proceed on behalf of a class that will include all people whose information was lost in the Office of the Washington State Auditor’s office breach. If the court allows the case to proceed as a class action, class members will receive notice of the case and will be provided an opportunity to opt out. Those who do not opt out will be included in the class. The class claims will then be tried together unless the case is resolved prior to trial.

If you filed for unemployment benefits with the State of Washington between January 2020 and December 2020, you may be part of the proposed class. We are happy to answer any questions you have, and we would like to discuss the facts surrounding this incident with you. You can reach us at (206) 682-5600 or by contacting any of the attorneys listed on their page by clicking their profile and sending them an email. Due to the high volume of inquiries, it may be a few days before we can get back to you.