Posted On August 12, 2022 Consumer Privacy & Data Breaches
August 12, 2022 – Valent U.S.A. LLC reported a data breach after the company was targeted in a recent cybersecurity attack. As a result of the breach, the name, social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, financial account information, medical information and date of birth of certain individuals was compromised. On August 11, 2022, Valent U.S.A. LLC sent out data breach letters to those individuals whose information was affected by the breach.
The data breach lawyers at Console & Associates, P.C. are going to begin interviewing victims of the breach to determine what damages they sustained and what legal claims may be available to them. If you recently received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH from Valent U.S.A. LLC, contact us at (866) 778-5500 to discuss your legal options, or submit a confidential contact form for a free case evaluation.
Below is a portion of the letter that Valent U.S.A. LLC sent to individuals affected by the data breach:
Dear [Redacted],
We are writing to provide you with additional information about the systems outage we previously communicated with you about. This letter explains what happened, what information may have been affected, what measures we are taking in response, and steps you can take to protect yourself.
What Happened
We discovered that our systems were experiencing an issue that prevented employees from accessing certain systems and servers on October 24, 2021. In response, we immediately launched an internal investigation and engaged outside expert consultants. At the same time, we took proactive measures to contain and mitigate the systems issue, including by taking our network and computers down. We also contacted law enforcement and cooperated with them in their investigation.
From our in-depth investigation, supported by our external experts, we discovered the systems outage was caused by a cyber-attack that encrypted some network servers. Based on this investigation, we recently discovered that the attack may have impacted your personal information. Our investigation has not revealed evidence of fraudulent data use. However, we want to provide you with information you can use to proactively take steps to protect yourself and your information.
What Information Was Involved
Our in-depth investigation has revealed that certain network servers and systems were encrypted during the attack. Some of these encrypted systems held, among other things, electronic files which contained certain of your personal information. As a result, we believe it is possible that the encryption event may have incidentally impacted personal information that we maintain about you. Which specific information of yours was impacted depends on the data we maintain about you, but may have included: name, social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, financial account information, medical information and date of birth.
What We Are Doing
As noted, as soon as we discovered the systems issue, we immediately launched an internal investigation and engaged the assistance of outside forensic experts and experienced cyber-consultants. At the same time, we took proactive measures to contain and mitigate the systems issue, including by taking certain aspects of our network and computers down. We have also worked to restore our systems from back-up servers unaffected by the systems outage, have reset all network administrative credentials and passwords, have been performing ongoing additional forensic scans on our systems, and are conducting regular testing, patching, training and other steps to further protect our networks. We also contacted law enforcement and have been cooperating with them in their investigation of the attack.
We take this matter very seriously, and in addition to the steps already described, Valent is offering you 24 months of free fraud detection and identity theft protection. If you wish to take advantage of these services, activation instructions are below.
What You Can Do
We encourage you to remain vigilant by reviewing your account statements and credit reports closely. At the end of this letter, we have provided you with additional information regarding steps you can proactively take to further protect yourself and your personal information. It describes information about (1) reporting suspicious activity or suspected identity theft, (2) credit reports, (3) fraud alerts, (4) credit/security freezes, (5) your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and (6) information about taxes. We encourage you review that additional information.
Free Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection: Even though we have no evidence that your personal information has been fraudulently used or publicly disclosed, as a precautionary measure, we are offering to provide you with 24 months of free identity monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration services through Experian’s IdentityWorks™ product. To take advantage of these free services, please follow the steps below:
Ensure that you enroll by October 31, 2022. Your code will not work after this date.
Visit the Experian IdentityWorks™ website to enroll: [Redacted]
Provide your activation code: [Redacted]
If you have questions about the product, need assistance with identity restoration that arose as a result of this incident, please contact Experian’s customer care team at (877) 653-0568 by October 31, 2022. Be prepared to provide engagement number [Redacted] as proof of eligibility for the identity restoration services by Experian.
For More Information
We take very seriously the security and privacy of your information, and deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any questions, please call (877) 653-0568 toll-free Monday through Friday from 8 am – 10 pm Central, or Saturday and Sunday from 10 am – 7 pm Central (excluding major U.S. holidays). Be prepared to provide your engagement number [Redacted].
