Erie Indemnity Sued Over June ‘Scattered Spider’ Data Breach (1)

Erie Indemnity Co. was hit a proposed class action alleging the insurance company failed to properly secure and safeguard customers’ personally identifiable information during a 10-day cybersecurity incident in June.

Lead plaintiff Matthew Crowley’s suit over Erie ‘s data breach, filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, is one of at least five alleging the company’s lack of protection allowed for the leak of information.

The complaint alleges that the group “Scattered Spider” was to blame for the network outage that caused the breach. The group is made up of hackers, typically teenagers and adults, who pose as tech support in order to steal and extort sensitive data from company networks, the suit said.

Following the breach at Erie Insurance, Philadelphia Insurance Companies and Aflac Inc. announced similar disruptions, the suit said.

According to the suit, victims have had to devote time, energy, and money to closely monitoring their bills, records, and financial accounts, changing their passwords frequently, screening and scrutinizing phone calls, and searching and paying for identity theft protection.

Crowley is seeking to represent a class of all US individuals whose personal information was compromised in the breach, which he estimates to be in the millions.

His lawsuit brings claims for negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment. He’s seeking damages as well as declaratory and injunctive relief.

Crowley and the proposed class are represented by Lynch Carpernter LLP.

“We strongly dispute the claims and information included in this filing and will vigorously defend against them,” Erie Insurance told Bloomberg Law Thursday.

The case is Crowley v. Erie Indem. Co., W.D. Pa., No. 1:25-cv-00188, complaint filed 7/2/25.