Christina Spicer  |  August 4, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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Anthem data breachLast week, a class action lawsuit was filed against Medical Informatics Engineering Inc. alleging the company was at fault for a recent data breach because it failed to implement adequate security measures.

Lead plaintiff James Young filed the class action lawsuit in Indiana federal court, alleging that Medical Informatics failed to heed warning signs that its security systems were inadequate to prevent a data breach they recently announced. According to the Medical Informatics class action lawsuit, the breach exposed the medical information and other data of nearly 4 million Americans.

“We view this as a particularly egregious data breach because not only does it involve personal information like Social Security numbers, it also involves medical records,” said an attorney for the plaintiff, who said it was different than other companies hit with data breaches because Medical Informatics’ specialty is data security of sensitive information. “Unlike Target, whose main business is selling products to consumers, electronic data is what they do.”

In June, Medical Informatics disclosed that it had detected suspicious activity on one of its servers and began mailing notices earlier this month to affected customers and said it would offer complimentary fraud monitoring and identity theft protection services. According to the data breach class action lawsuit, the personal information, including phone numbers, addresses, usernames and passwords, security questions and answers, lab results, medical conditions and more, were disclosed in the breach.

The plaintiff alleges in his class action lawsuit that Medical Informatics was well-aware of the threat posed by hackers because of warnings from the FBI, as well as from news of other medical companies whose databases were hacked, including a May attack on Premera Blue Cross and Anthem Inc., which affected as many as 80 million customers and employees.

According to the data breach class action lawsuit, Medical Informatics stated that protecting personal information is “of the utmost importance,” and therefore the company knew it had a duty to protect such information. The plaintiff also alleges that the company did not provide notice in a timely manner by waiting until mid-July to notify customers of the breach despite detecting it in May.

The class action lawsuit accuses Medical Informatics of negligence, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. Other claims include violations of Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, under which Class Members would be entitled to $1,000 or treble damages, alleges the plaintiff. The plaintiff seeks to represent a nationwide Class that the plaintiff’s attorney estimates reaches 3.9 million.

In the wake of the Medical Informatics data breach, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller issued a statement advising everyone in his state to freeze their credit.

Young is represented by Lynn Toops, Irwin B. Levin and Richard E. Shevitz of Cohen & Malad LLP.

The Medical Informatics Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Young v. Medical Informatics Engineering Inc., Case No. 1:15-cv-00197, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

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3 thoughts onMedical Informatics Hit with Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

  1. Melissa Chattin says:

    I received notice I was a part of this breach. I would like to see what my
    Options are because I have suffered Identity theft and many other things after this happened.

  2. Barb Graves says:

    I received letter regarding May 26 2015. Would much appreciate a reply back regarding getting involved in this class act.

  3. sonia collazo says:

    I work for the va hospital and I have been on the group security breach

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