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Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect Data Breach

Posted on behalf of Arnold Law Firm in
NOTICE: If you are a current or former Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect business account holder, current or former StockPlan participant, or current or former StockPlan Shareholder and received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH, contact the Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777 to discuss your legal options.
Morgan Stanley data breachOn May 20, 2021 Morgan Stanley was notified by Guidehouse, a vendor that provides account maintenance services to Morgan Stanley’s StockPlan Connect business, that it had suffered a data breach. Guidehouse advised Morgan Stanley that data it maintained for Morgan Stanley had been accessed through the Accellion FTA vulnerability. Although the files in Guidehouse’s possession were encrypted, the unauthorized party was able to obtain the decryption key during the data breach. Morgan Stanley reviewed Guidehouse’s remediation of the data breach. According to Guidehouse, the Accellion FTA vulnerability that led to this data breach was patched in January 2021, within 5 days of the patch becoming available. Although the data was obtained by the unauthorized individual around that time, the vendor did not discover the attack until March of 2021, and did not discover the impact to Morgan Stanley until May 2021. On July 2, 2021, Morgan Stanley reported to the California Attorney General’s office that on January 20, 2021, an unauthorized party accessed Morgan Stanley’s vendors’ server, containing encrypted files from Morgan Stanley. The attack was successful through a vulnerability in the vendor’s server, Accellion FTA. While the exposure was patched within five days, the unauthorized party accessed the encrypted files along with the decryptor.

WHAT INFORMATION WAS INVOLVED?

On July 2, 2021, Morgan Stanley began to send out four versions of the data breach letter to affected individuals notifying them of the Data Breach. Together, the letters include the following exposed data:
  • First and Last names
  • Addresses
  • Dates of Birth
  • Social Security numbers
  • Corporate Company names
Morgan Stanley has engaged credit firm, Experian to offer free credit monitoring services for 24 months for those affected by the data breach. According to Morgan Stanley, they are still assessing the extent of the attack and will be providing affected individuals with a data breach letter. At this time, it is unclear how many letters are expected to go out.

NOTICE: If you are a current or former Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect business account holder, current or former StockPlan participant, or current or former StockPlan Shareholder and received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH, contact the Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777 to discuss your legal options.

Settlement - $3,767,000

Truck Accident

A 20-year-old man who had been married for just 12 days left home on his way to work. He was driving on Pleasant Grove Road in Sutter County in the early morning when he came upon a slow-moving truck. As he pulled out to pass the truck, the truck driver turned left in front of him. The young man attempted to steer back into his lane but his vehicle struck an un-flagged piece of metal extending from the back of the truck. He died in the resulting crash.

Expert witnesses brought in by the Arnold Law Firm proved that the truck, owned and operated by a hauling firm, should never have been on the highway that morning. Specifically, the rear and side turn signals did not work and the rear-view mirror was in a poor state of adjustment at the time of the collision. As a result, the driver, who had failed to properly inspect the vehicle before setting out that morning, couldn’t see the young man’s vehicle as it attempted to pass.

The poor condition of the truck, its lack of maintenance and the manner in which it was operated were found to be substantial factors in causing the collision that killed the young man. The testimony also established that the man had been making a lawful pass at the lawful speed limit and acted reasonably when he attempted to avoid the collision.

The man’s 20-year-old widow was awarded $3,767,000.77, his parents were awarded $185,131 and the family was reimbursed $11,899 in funeral expenses. Though money is a poor substitute for a young man’s life, this verdict demonstrates that drivers who endanger the lives of others will be held accountable for their actions.