Gabrielle Lewis reports:
Four class action lawsuits alleging Frederick Health Hospital failed to protect patients’ sensitive data during a ransomware attack in January were filed this month.
These lawsuits accuse FHH of having inadequate cybersecurity measures, neglecting its obligation to protect patient data, improperly notifying the people affected by the data breach and putting individuals at risk for identity theft and fraud.
The lawsuits demand jury trials and ask for unspecified monetary amounts to be awarded to each of the plaintiffs.
DataBreaches typically doesn’t report all the lawsuits filed in the wake of ransomware attacks, but in this case, the complaint made some allegations that caught my eye:
Shoemaker, Chaillet and Kibler’s complaints specifically say the notice letters FHH sent to people impacted by the data breach didn’t include:
- The dates of the hospital’s investigation
- Explanations of why FHH didn’t identify the attack sooner
- The attacker’s identity
- Details on the root cause of the attack
- The vulnerabilities exposed in FHH’s security system
There doesn’t seem anything unusual about the hospital not including all that information in a breach notification letter to patients. Is there some state or federal law that requires disclosure of that kind of information to those affected? If not…. ?
Read more at The Frederick News-Post.