AG: Firm Failed to Protect Personal Information of 800,000 New Yorkers
By Hank Russell
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $500,000 from Noblr, an auto insurance company, for failing to protect the personal information of more than 80,000 New Yorkers as part of a data breach. The data breach was part of an industry-wide campaign by scammers to steal consumers’ personal information, including driver’s license numbers and dates of birth, from online automobile insurance quoting applications. The scammers then used some of the stolen driver’s license information to file fraudulent unemployment claims at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Noblr is an insurance company that allows consumers to obtain a price quote through an online insurance quoting tool. According to James, Noblr’s quoting tool exposed full, plaintext driver’s license numbers in various ways, including on the backend of its website and in PDFs generated when a purchase was made. Noblr also did not block users from entering the personal information of New York residents, even though Noblr does not offer insurance products in New York.
Noblr discovered scammers exploiting the prefill vulnerability in January 2021. However, the company did not monitor its site traffic in real time, causing delays in detecting the attack. This failure to monitor site traffic also made it difficult to distinguish malicious activity from legitimate consumer inquiries. The attack on Noblr’s auto-quoting tool exposed the data of approximately 80,000 New York residents.
The Office of the Attorney General’s investigation determined that the insurance company failed to adopt reasonable safeguards to protect private information. In addition to paying $500,000 in penalties, Noblr is required to enhance its data security, including by enhancing its web application defenses; maintaining a comprehensive information security program designed to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of private information; developing and maintaining a data inventory of private information and ensuring such information is protected by reasonable safeguards; and maintaining reasonable authentication procedures for access to private information; and a logging and monitoring system to alert on suspicious activity within their systems.
“Auto insurance companies offer drivers protection during emergencies, but they must also protect their personal information from hackers and scammers,” James said. “Noblr failed to secure its data systems making it easy for scammers to steal New Yorkers’ information and use some of the stolen information to fraudulently obtain unemployment benefits. Today we are holding Noblr accountable for being reckless with New Yorkers’ personal data and reminding all companies that they must prioritize cybersecurity.”
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to USAA, which owns Noblr. A USAA spokesperson said in a statement, “These actions occurred prior to USAA’s acquisition of Noblr and we are pleased to have this matter resolved.”