A cybersecurity breach at 700Credit late last month affected the majority of the company’s over 21,000 customers, including many RV dealers.
The company said a bad actor gained access to personally identifiable information, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers. The company is continuing to investigate the breach. No indication of identity theft, fraud or misuse of information has been detected.
700Credit Managing Director Ken Hill said the company hired cybersecurity experts to review the breach. He said the experts did not identify any impact on the company’s internal network, and confirmed all activity was limited to the 700Dealer.com application layer.
“It was our fault, our mistake, our customers,” Hill said, “and our data breach.”
For RV dealers that work with 700Credit, the breach requires compliance with FBI, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state government rules.
The FTC Safeguards Rule requires financial institutions, including dealers, to provide an electronic notice as soon as possible, and no later than 30 days after discovering a breach involving information of at least 500 consumers.
Hill said 700Credit worked with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) to file a consolidated beach notice on behalf of its dealer clients.
The move fulfilled dealers’ responsibility to report to the FTC. Dealers must still take state-level steps to comply with regulations fully.
Hill said 700Credit is working on assisting dealers at the state level.
“We have reported to the FBI. We reported to the FTC,” Hill said. “Now, we are working through the states, going through and reporting to each state and agency that requires and their minimum reporting requirements.”
He said dealers should notify their insurance carrier of the event.
“We are going to be providing notices to the consumers with the number to our help line (833-586-1820), free credit monitoring, and a free copy of their credit report,” Hil said. “Those are sort of the steps we are taking right now.”
700Credit said it cannot advise dealerships on specific legal obligations. Hill recommends that dealers consult with their legal counsel.
The company continues providing services as scheduled.
“All of our filings will be within the required deadlines,” Hill said, “and we are just doing everything we can to do on behalf of our customers.”
