WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced Aug. 9 that his office has secured $5.5 million from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and a subsidiary as part of a 33-state settlement in a data breach case.
“Consumers in the district and across the nation entrust their personal information to retailers every day,” Racine said. “Data breaches open the door to identity theft, which can have real and devastating consequences for hard-working people, and we hope today’s settlement reminds retailers that they have a responsibility to do everything they can to protect consumers’ private information.”
According to allegations, Nationwide suffered a data breach in October 2012 that exposed the personal information of nearly 1.3 million consumers. The exposed information allegedly included consumers’ social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, credit scores, and other private information.
“Many thanks to Phil Ziperman, the director, and Jimmy Rock, the deputy director, of our Office of Consumer Protection for their hard work in leading this investigation,” Racine said. “They and their team have worked hard in the last two years to turn the district into a national leader on major multistate actions to protect consumers.”
Joining in the settlement were the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee Texas, Vermont and Washington state.