Law Commons^™

Credit-Monitoring Damages In Cybersecurity Tort Litigation, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

When someone improperly accesses or discloses an individual’s personal information, the subject of that data breach is often at an increased risk of identity theft. One way for an affected data subject to guard against this risk is to subscribe to a credit-monitoring service. Recently, potential cybersecurity defendants have provided credit-monitoring services to affected data subjects voluntarily, and courts have approved credit-monitoring compensation as part of class-action settlements. These developments demonstrate that credit-monitoring expenditures are both reasonable and necessary when a serious breach of data security occurs. Furthermore, the economic loss rule should not bar recovery of credit-monitoring damages because …