Final Settlement Granted in Academy of Art University Data Breach Class Action
On July 30, 2018, the San Francisco Superior Court granted final approval to a class action settlement on behalf of current and former employees of Academy of Art University (AAU), a for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. The case stemmed from AAU’s April 2016 announcement that it suffered a data breach after one of its employees was targeted by an e-mail “spoofing” scam and sent the IRS W-2 forms of over 3,300 current and former AAU employees to an unknown third party.
As part of the settlement, AAU agreed to reimburse settlement class members for out-of-pocket losses fairly traceable to the breach and provide class members with two years of three-bureau credit monitoring services at no cost. AAU also agreed to make changes to its business practices, including implementing technical security barriers to limit the flow of fraudulent emails and maintaining an employee cybersecurity training program.
Norman Siegel and Austin Moore of Stueve Siegel Hanson were appointed settlement class counsel on behalf of class members.
Stueve Siegel Hanson is an industry-leader in data breach and cyber-security litigation. Stueve Siegel Hanson attorneys have prosecuted cases involving the largest data breaches in U.S. history, securing millions of dollars for affected consumers. For more information about our data breach practice, click here.
