Rady Children’s Hospital Hit With Ransomware Class Action After Blackbaud Data Breach

• Rady Children’s filed a motion to have the class action lawsuit dismissed on March 5, saying that it isn’t to blame for the ransomware attack since it was caused by the security failures of software provider Blackbaud in February 2020 that continued for three months.

A new class action lawsuit accuses Rady Children’s Hospital of failing to properly protect thousands of patients’ private information in a ransomware attack.

The San Diego hospital didn’t have adequate data security measures in place that would have protected the sensitive information, according to the complaint. The private information of nearly 20,000 patients was exposed in the data breach that occurred between Feb. 7, and June 4 of 2020. The information allegedly included “highly valuable and protected information including patient names, addresses, dates of birth, the names of patients’ physicians, and the department the patients were admitted to.”

In addition to failing to protect patient data, the class action lawsuit contends that, despite knowing about the attack in May, the hospital failed to notify those exposed in the breach until October of 2020.

“Plaintiff and other class members’ private information is now at risk because of defendant’s negligent conduct and unfair acts and practices,” states the complaint that alleges Rady Children’s Hospital violated California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.

“The private information that defendant collected and maintained has been placed in the hands of criminal hackers,” the complaint continues. “Defendant cannot reasonably maintain that the hackers destroyed the private information.”

Blackbaud, the cloud computing software company used by the facility, maintains that it paid the hackers to stop the ransomware attack in exchange for verification that they destroyed all the data they managed to extract from Rady Children’s Hospital. However, the Blackbaud has been hit with as many as 15 lawsuits over its data security measures, reports Law360, though it is not named in this class action lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit is seeking monetary damages, as well as a court order protecting victims of the data breach.

Were you impacted by the Rady Children’s Hospital ransomware attack? Tell us your experience in the comment section below or see if you qualify for a free lawsuit claim review by going here. 

The lead plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Ronald A. Marron, Alexis Wood, and Kas L. Gallucci of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron.

The Rady Children’s Hospital Ransomware Attack Class Action Lawsuit is Doe v. Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, Case No. 3:21-cv-00114, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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