Lawsuits pile up after data breach at mortgage lender Mr. Cooper

The cyberattack on Dallas-based mortgage lender Mr. Cooper is over–and here come the lawyers.

Three class-action lawsuits filed Nov. 14 allege Mr. Cooper did not adequately safeguard the confidential personal information of its approximately 4.3 million customers. The suits contend that the company’s negligence allowed the data breach. They also claim the company did not notify customers of the breach in a timely manner. 

The lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. 

The lawsuits claim affected customers have lost time and money responding to the breach and are at increased risk of becoming targets of fraud and identity theft as a result of the breach. One plaintiff is seeking a $5 million payout. The other two are seeking unspecified amounts of compensatory damages. 

Mr. Cooper did not comment on the pending litigation. 

The legal action comes less than a month after Mr. Cooper experienced a cyber attack in which unauthorized third parties gained access to customers’ names, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. The incident forced the company to temporarily shut down some of its systems, leaving its customers unable to make mortgage and loan payments. The company first notified the public of the attack via a banner on its website saying it learned of the attack on Oct. 31 and took immediate action to secure customers’ data, TechRadar reported. 

Mr. Cooper holds loans worth $937 billion and is the country’s largest non-bank servicer of home mortgages. The company has completed two major acquisitions this year. In April, Mr. Cooper purchased Rushmore Loan Management Services. Less than a month later, it acquired Michigan-based Home Point Capital for $324 million and assumed $500 million of the company’s outstanding debt, due February 2026, the Dallas Morning News reported.