Secretary Benson testifies in support of legislation to allow electronic transfer of vehicle titles

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that Michigan, along with 49 other attorneys general, has reached a settlement with software company Blackbaud for its deficient data security practices and response to a 2020 ransomware event that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers across the United States. Under the settlement, Blackbaud has agreed to overhaul its data security and breach notification practices and make a $49.5 million payment to states. Michigan will receive $1,150,595 from the settlement.

Blackbaud provides software to various nonprofit organizations, including charities, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, healthcare organizations, religious organizations, and cultural organizations. Blackbaud’s customers use its software to connect with donors and manage data about their constituents, including contact and demographic information, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial information, employment and wealth information, donation history, and protected health information. This type of highly sensitive information was exposed during the 2020 data breach, which impacted over 13,000 Blackbaud customers and their respective consumer constituents.

“Companies that have access to our data have an obligation to provide security measures capable of resisting cyberattacks that may expose consumers’ most personal information,” said Nessel. “This settlement imposes new regulations on Blackbaud that will better secure its customer data and ensure that customers are notified of future breaches in a timely manner. Consumers should take precautions to protect their personal information, and this financial settlement will remind Blackbaud that prioritizing profits over customer data security can be a costly way to do business.”

This settlement resolves allegations by the attorneys general that Blackbaud violated state consumer protection laws, breach notification laws, and HIPAA by failing to implement reasonable data security and remediate known security gaps, which allowed unauthorized persons to gain access to Blackbaud’s network. Blackbaud then failed to provide its customers with timely, complete, or accurate information regarding the breach, as required by law. As a result of Blackbaud’s actions, notification to the consumers whose personal information was exposed was significantly delayed or never occurred at all insofar as Blackbaud downplayed the incident and led its customers to believe that notification was not required.

Indiana and Vermont co-led the multistate investigation, assisted by the Executive Committee consisting of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and New York, and joined by Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

 LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a coalition of 11 states in calling on Congress to protect the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) from harmful budget cuts.

“The Inflation Reduction Act will provide the necessary funding to help states respond to climate-related events and convert to cleaner energy sources,” Nessel said. “Any cuts to monies authorized by this legislation could jeopardize the efforts to support expanding opportunities for clean energy jobs and entrepreneurship in local communities. I stand firmly with my colleagues in asking Congress to maintain robust funding for this legislation.”

In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the IRA, the nation’s largest-ever investment in addressing climate change. The IRA directs hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide toward climate solutions, providing significant incentives for clean energy, energy efficiency, and more.

The letter asks Congress to reject cuts proposed by House leadership that threaten the IRA’s ability to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create good, green jobs. Proposed cuts could rescind over $20 billion authorized by the IRA.

The multistate coalition opposes cuts to programs that would, among other things:

Funding to implement the IRA is important to ensure that the progress made on climate goals benefits—and does not further burden—disadvantaged and low-wealth communities.

On the anniversary of the IRA, the White House announced that in its first year, over 170,000 clean energy jobs have already been created nationwide, and that the law is estimated to create 1.5 million jobs over the first decade of its implementation.

The letter was led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and joined by AG Nessel and the attorneys general of Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.