HARRISBURG, PA — Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that, as part of a coalition of 46 attorneys general, he’s secured a $1.25 million multistate settlement with Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line (Carnival) stemming from a 2019 data breach that involved the personal information of 180,000 Carnival employees and consumers nationwide. Pennsylvania will receive $28,890.75 from the settlement.
“When personal data is exposed to bad actors, it’s essential that consumers are notified as quickly as possible,” said AG Shapiro. “Added delays increase the possibility of that personal data being used for nefarious purposes. With [this] settlement, Carnival has agreed to make important changes to the way they do business that will better protect consumers and ensure if the worst is to happen again, consumers learn about it as soon as possible.”
In March 2020, Carnival publicly reported a data breach in which an unauthorized actor gained access to Carnival employee email accounts. The breach exposed sensitive personal information, including: names, addresses, passport numbers, driver’s license numbers, payment card information, health information, and a small number of social security numbers. 3,794 Pennsylvanians were impacted by the data breach.
Data breaches like Carnival’s involve personal information stored via email and other disorganized methods. Businesses lack visibility into this data, making breach notifications more challenging, and consumer risk rises with delays.
Notifications were sent to attorneys general offices stating that Carnival first became aware of suspicious email activity in May 2019, 10 months before Carnival reported the breach. A multistate investigation was launched, focusing on Carnival’s email security practices and compliance with state breach notification statutes.
Under the settlement, Carnival has agreed to a series of changes designed to strengthen its email security and breach response practices going forward. They include:
- Implementation and maintenance of a breach response and notification plan.
- Email security training requirements for employees, including dedicated phishing exercises.
- Multi-factor authentication for remote email access.
- Password policies and procedures requiring the use of strong, complex passwords, password rotation, and secure password storage.
- Maintenance of enhanced behavior analytics tools to log and monitor potential security events on the company’s network.
- Consistent with past data breach settlements, undergoing an independent information security assessment.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General assisted in an investigation co-led by Connecticut, Florida, and Washington, with additional assistance from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Ohio, and North Carolina, and joined by Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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