The number of credit unions suing Wendy's over its recent data breach hassoared in recent weeks, and other members of the industry are alsopiling into the class action suit against the fast food chain.

The case against the burger chain now includes 19 credit unions,three banks, four credit union leagues andCUNA. In July, a Pennsylvania District Court Judge consolidatedthe suits.

The complaint alleged that, among other things, Wendy's failedto delete cardholder information from its systems after authorizingtransactions, failed to protect against malware and viruses, didn'thave an adequate firewall, didn't limit or track access to the carddata, failed to disclose the breach in a timely manner and didn'tcovert to EMV. It also alleged that that the point-of-sale systemsat Wendy's were out of date.

The three bank plaintiffs include Centrue Bank, First NBC Bankand The Seymour Bank. Georgia Credit Union Affiliates, the IndianaCredit Union League, the Michigan Credit Union League and the OhioCredit Union League are also plaintiffs.

In July, Wendy's, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, confirmedhackers obtained customer payment card data at 1,025 of its restaurants nationwide.

“Industry sources estimate the fraudulent charges have been evengreater than in other recent data breaches, like Target and HomeDepot. CUNA surveys found credit unions alone were hit with nearly$60 million in costs after Home Depot's 2014 data breach and $30.6million after Target's 2013 data breach,” CUNA said in a statementregarding its decision to join the suit.

For some, joining the suit is also a way to push for new lawsthat make retailers responsible for damages associated with databreaches.

“Until retailers are forced to invest in robust data securitymeasures, credit unions will continue to pay the price for retailerdata breaches,” Michigan Credit Union League EVP/COO Ken Ross said.“Adding our name to this class action is one way we are going tobat for Michigan credit unions until a legislative solution isachieved.”

The original complaint alleged that the breach was caused bymalware on the company's point-of-sale systems that stole Track1 and Track 2 data. That data normally includes cardholder names,primary account numbers, card expiration dates and sometimes PINnumbers, the complaint said. According to a Visa CAMS alert citedin the filing, the exposure window for the data breach ran from Oct. 26, 2015through March 10, 2016.

The breach resulted in the credit union and thousands of othercard issuers having to cancel and reissue compromised cards, changeor close accounts, notify cardholders their cards were compromised,investigate claims of fraudulent activity, increase fraudmonitoring activities, as well as reimburse cardholders forfraudulent charges, according to the complaint.

The 19 credit unions include:

• Alcoa Community Federal Credit Union (Benton, Ark., $40.9million, 6,500 members)
• Align Credit Union (Lowell, Mass., $555 million, 27,700members)
• AOD Federal Credit Union (Oxford, Ala., $280 million, 32,400members)
• Associated Credit Union (Norcross, Ga., $1.4 billion, 162,900members)
• Envista Credit Union (Topeka, Kan., $314 million, 38,300members)
• Financial Horizons Credit Union (Hawthorne, Nev., $165 million,11,000 members)
• First Choice Federal Credit Union (New Castle, Penn., $44million, 6,400 members)
• Greater Cincinnati Credit Union (Cincinnati, Ohio, nomember/asset size available)
• Greenville Heritage Federal Credit Union (Greenville, S.C., $88million, 13,000 members)
• Kemba Federal Credit Union (Gahanna, Ohio, $1 billion, 87,200members)
• Members Choice Credit Union (Houston, $519 million, 39,800members)
• Navigator Credit Union (Pascagoula, Miss., $326 million, 47,700members)
• North Jersey Federal Credit Union (Totowa, N.J., $226 million,26,200 members)
• Nusenda Credit Union (Albuquerque, N.M., $1.8 billion, 164,000members)
• Preferred Credit Union (Grand Rapids, Mich., $162 million,24,900 members)
• South Florida Educational Federal Credit Union (Miami, $1billion, 75,000 members)
• Tech Credit Union (Crown Point, Ind., $335 million, 38,000members)
• Veridian Credit Union (Waterloo, Iowa, $3 billion, 200,000members)
• Wright-Patt Credit Union (Beavercreek, Ohio, $3.3 billion,324,000 members)

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