A Las Vegas casino operator that filed a lawsuit against a cybersecurity firm the company hired in the wake of a 2013 data breachmay be paving the way for other businesses to take contracted cybersecurity companies to court.

Trustwave, which is based in Chicago, was hired by AffinityGaming to investigate a hack that exposed the details of creditcards belonging to as many as 300,000 customers, who used them atrestaurants, hotels and gift shops on its casino properties.

“At the conclusion of its investigation, Trustwave representedto Affinity Gaming that the data breach was ‘contained’ andpurported to provide recommendations for Affinity Gaming toimplement that would help fend off future data attacks,” accordingto the lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in Nevada on Dec.24.

After Trustwave’s initial investigation concluded in 2013,Affinity Gaming later learned that it had suffered an ongoing databreach, which led the gaming company to retain a second datasecurity consulting firm, Mandiant.

“Mandiant’s forthright and thorough investigation concluded thatTrustwave’s representations were untrue, and Trustwave’s prior workwas woefully inadequate,” the lawsuit said.

In a statement emailed to Legaltech News, Cas Purdy, a Trustwavespokesperson said: “We dispute and disagree with the allegations inthe lawsuit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously in court.”

The case is among the first of its kind where a clientchallenges a cyber security company over the quality of itsinvestigation following a hack.

Affinity Gaming is seeking at least $100,000 in damages fromTrustwave as well as a “declaration that Trustwave is liable toAffinity Gaming for any and all future losses or injuries arisingfrom Trustwave’s misconduct.” The gaming company said it has used$1.2 million of a $5 million Cyber insurance policy to handleexpenses related to the breach, the Financial Times reported.

A representative for Affinity Gaming declined to comment on thecase. The company operates 11 casinos in the U.S. — five in Nevada,three in Colorado, two in Missouri, and one in Iowa.

On its website, Trustwave says it “helps businesses fight cybercrime, protect data and reduce security risk.”

Earlier this month, Trustwave announced that IT research firmGartner positioned Trustwave in the “challengers” quadrant in the“Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Services, Worldwide,”a report that evaluated 14 different global managed securityservice providers (MSSPs) on several criteria.

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