BOARDMAN TWP., Ohio -

A Boardman business has filed a lawsuit against its Information Technology services provider, alleging that lax security is to blame for more than $1,750,000 stolen from their bank accounts by hackers.

 

Boardman Molded Products filed the suit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against Involta LLC of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, seeking more than $25,000 in damage for alleged breach of service and professional negligence and malpractice.

 

21 News reported one year ago that Boardman Molded co-owner Daniel Kessler told township police that beginning on January 16th, 2019, someone was able to hack into the other owner's email account and send invoices to the accounts payable department.

 

For nine days, six invoices were sent, totaling $1,759,415 to be paid.

 

The lawsuit says internal company emails to the accounting staff, and modified spreadsheets were redirected by “malicious hackers.”

 

Several fake invoices were sent to Boardman Molding, which was paid by the accounting staff.

 

The civil lawsuit claims that Involta failed to take appropriate action when it was informed of the hack and that Involta “insisted that the breach had never taken place” and that Boardman Molded's security rules were too relaxed.

 

The lawsuit claims that Boardman Molded's own IT employee was not permitted to deal with security issues due to permissions that Involta had set.

 

Other allegations include that Involta failed to install anti-virus software on all of the company's computers and that 114 viruses were found on Boardman Molded's virtual server weeks after the hacking incidents.

 

According to a police report, Boardman Molded's tech employee was able to pull up the email and trace the address back to Cambodia.

 

As of Thursday, Involta has not responded to the lawsuit.