In light of recent data thefts at Ohio University, two graduates have filed a lawsuit against the school claiming its actions, or lack thereof, were negligent and deliberately indifferent to their right to privacy.
Jay Kulpa, 31, of Hamilton County, and Kenneth Neben, 34, who now lives in North Bergen, N.J., are asking the university to cover their legal and credit-monitoring expenses, as well as the expenses of the thousands of other people whose information was stolen in the breach, according to the Ohio Court of Claims' Web site.
Ultimately, the lawsuit could cost the university millions, said OU Office of Legal Affairs Director John Burns.
OU has not officially received the claim yet, Burns said, but noted we'll have to respond.
Burns went on to say that dozens of people have contacted the university charging that their identities have been stolen during the recent security compromise but it is unclear whether those people or the defendants in the lawsuit actually had their information stolen in this specific breach.
OU is investigating the cases of those who have contacted the university, he said, noting that he was also looking for similar precedents to the case in other states ' there aren't any similar precedents in Ohio.
The case is a class-action suit, so it could potentially include the thousands of other people who had their information stolen pending the decision of Judge Clark B. Weaver in the Ohio Court of Claims. The lawsuit was filed Friday.
Kulpa and Neben could not be reached for comment.
(The defendants) are concerned over the length of time the breaches could continue and the fact that there was no effective oversight
said the defendants' Cincinnati-based attorney Marc Mezibov, adding that the university turned a blind eye.
In a recently released audit done by an independent agency, it was found that much contention existed among OU's technology departments, and that at least one department had millions of dollars that went unspent. The report noted that the surplus could have been used toward network security.
A great number of people have been given a level of insecurity that they didn't expect or deserve Mezibov said.
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Janet Nester
