Alera faces possible class action over 2024 data breach

A lawsuit was filed Monday against Alera, alleging the brokerage failed to adequately protect private data accessed during a data breach last year.

The suit, Danielle Hegarty, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated v. Alera Group Inc., was filed in federal court in Chicago and seeks class-action status.

In the case, a former Alera customer alleges that the brokerage failed “to properly secure and safeguard Plaintiff’s and thousands of Class Members’ sensitive personal identifying information, which as a result, remains in the hands of those cyber-criminals.”

In April, Alera disclosed that personal information might have been removed from its network during a breach that occurred between July 19  and Aug. 4, 2024.

Last week, the company began issuing notices to potentially affected individuals specifying that their personal information may have been accessed, the suit says.

The personal information accessed should have been protected through encryption and other security measures, the suit says.

Alera’s offer of two years of credit monitoring is “wholly inadequate”  to compensate the victims of the breach, the complaint says.

Alera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.