This article (posted by Wired.com) was forwarded to us by one of our banking clients. As I read it, I became increasingly concerned about what impact this ruling may have on other financial institutions.
An Illinois district court has allowed a couple to sue their bank on the novel grounds that it may have failed to sufficiently secure their account, after an unidentified hacker obtained a $26,500 loan on the account using the customers’ user name and password.
As initially reported by legal blogger, David Johnson, Marsha and Michael Shames-Yeakel sued Citizens Financial Bank in 2007 in the northern district of Illinois on several grounds, including a claim that the bank failed to provide state-of-the-art security measures to protect their account.
For the full Wired.com article: Court Allows Woman to Sue Bank for Lax Security After $26,000 Stolen by Hacker