Since a Seattle based healthcare company named Sea Mar Community Health Centers has failed to protect the health care information of over 688,000 people, it will have to respond to a lawsuit filed in the district court early this month.
According to the sources reporting to our Cybersecurity Insiders, the data breach was detected in June 2021, where a portion of data related to patients was stolen by a hacking gang named Marketo.
As the company failed to bow down to the demands of the hackers, the Marketo gang members put over 3TB stolen data onto the dark web for sale and were purchased by another gang that operates a ransomware as a service firm.
From Oct 2021, Sea Mar took notified to its customers about the breach through an email letter and admitted that cyber criminals accessed its servers between Nov’20 to March’21 to steal valuable info such as names, DOB, health information, addresses and social security numbers.
After learning about the cyber attack and the consequences, Alan Hall, a well-versed from Bellingham, sued Community Health Center chain and projected it as a public interest litigation- thus fighting for him and all those (650,000 Class Members) affected.
It’s clear that Sea Mar( abbreviated as Seattle Marysville) failed to implement cybersecurity procedures to protect the information of its employees and patients; and so will have to face a financial penalty that could cause seeking of 68% of the company’s annual profits as compensation.
A potential source from the healthcare services provider commented that the company has solved the issue amicably and will come up with an explanation, resolution and financial reparation for those affected in coming weeks.
