A class-action lawsuit was filed Wednesday in an Atlanta federal court on behalf of about 28 million American small businesses over the latest Equifax data breach.
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Georgia/Atlanta division by the Doss firm. The plaintiffs named in the complaint include real estate firms, a law firm, and a consulting firm, and the lawsuit seeks to recover damages and legal costs associated with the breach.
“This is a real double whammy situation for small business owners whose access to credit can often live or die in terms of their personal creditworthiness,” said attorney Jason Doss. ‘The breach could either damage the business directly through identify theft or it could cripple access to small business credit by damaging the ‘linked’ credit of the individual who owns the enterprise.”
Doss said the nation’s estimated 28 million small business operators face special risk of suffering multiple damages from the breach.
Equifax announced late Friday that its chief information officer and chief security officer would leave the company immediately, following the enormous breach of 143 million Americans' personal information. It also presented a litany of security efforts it made after noticing suspicious network traffic in July.
