Let’s be clear: Phishing isn’t just “bad luck.” In the eyes of the law, it is often a quantifiable failure of corporate governance.
While companies love to blame “human error” when a breach happens, the reality is usually much different. If a multi-billion dollar corporation relies entirely on a single employee not clicking a link to protect millions of Social Security numbers, that is not a mistake—that is a negligent security architecture.
Beyond the “Wrong Link”: How Social Engineering Actually Works
At Wucetich & Korovilas LLP, we don’t just look at the email; we look at the systems that should have stopped it. Modern social engineering attacks are sophisticated, and “annual training videos” are no longer a sufficient defense.
We represent clients in cases involving specific, high-level failures, including:
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): When attackers impersonate executives (CEO fraud) to trick finance departments into wiring funds or releasing W-2 data.
- IT Help Desk Manipulation: Similar to the massive 2023 MGM Resorts breach, where attackers simply called the help desk and convinced them to reset passwords, bypassing all technical firewalls.
- “Smishing” (SMS Phishing): Attacks delivered via text message that often bypass traditional email spam filters.
- MFA Fatigue: When hackers spam an employee’s phone with push notifications until they accidentally hit “Approve” just to make it stop.
If a company failed to implement phishing-resistant Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)—such as FIDO2 hardware keys—they may be liable for the damages caused by the breach.
Your Rights Under California Law (CCPA)
California has the strongest data privacy laws in the United States. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Civil Code § 1798.150, businesses are legally required to implement and maintain “reasonable security procedures and practices.”
What does “reasonable” mean? It means that if a company collects your personal information, they have a duty to design systems that anticipate human error. In the 2020 Twitter breach, for example, teenagers manipulated employees into providing credentials. The failure wasn’t just human—it was institutional.
If your data was exposed because a business failed to act responsibly, you don’t just have to accept the “free credit monitoring” they offer. You may be entitled to statutory damages ranging from $100 to $750 per consumer, per incident, even if you haven’t suffered actual identity theft yet.
Why Wucetich & Korovilas LLP?
We are litigators, not a call center.
Many “data breach lawyers” you find online are lead-generation sites. We are an actual firm with a track record in the courtroom. We understand the technical nuance between a software vulnerability and a social engineering failure, and we know how to depose Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to find out where the budget for security was cut.
If your personal, medical, or financial data has been exposed due to a phishing or social engineering attack, you have rights. Do not let a corporation convince you that their failure was an “unavoidable accident.”
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At Wucetich & Korovilas LLP, we focus in data breach litigation, helping victims pursue compensation and drive change in corporate practices. We work on a strict contingency basis.
This means we cover all costs of the investigation and litigation. We only get paid if we win your case.
The harm is real—and so is the path to justice. Let’s take the first step together.