Academic health system agrees to $8M settlement following data breach
A class-action lawsuit filed against University of Missouri (MU) Health Care over a 2020 data breach has been resolved, with plaintiffs receiving an $8 million judgment.
MU Health Care announced the incident in September 2020, though the cyberattack on its systems occurred in early May. According to an announcement, hackers accessed patients' personal information, including "names, dates of birth, medical record or patient account numbers, health insurance information and/or limited treatment or clinical information, such as diagnostic, prescription and/or procedure information."
"For some patients, a Social Security number was also identified," MU Health Care confirmed. An investigation into the scope of the breach later concluded that 190,000 individuals were affected.
Each person who opts to receive a judgment in the class-action case will receive between $60 and $150, according to a website set up for the settlement fund.
Attorney fees for the lawsuit will account for roughly $1.76 million of the $8 million total.
Casey Bumbales and Amanda Kunkelman, victims of the attack who initially spurred the class-action filing against MU Health Care, are set to receive $5,000 each as an award, the court confirmed.
As part of the deal, MU Health Care does not admit wrongdoing. However, the specifics of their non-financial concessions shed light on how cybercriminals were able to gain unauthorized access to systems. MU Health Care has agreed to "maintain multifactor authentication for its email system and conduct enhanced email security training as remedial measures for at least five years," suggesting the institution may have fallen victim to a phishing attack.
Those upgrades are estimated to cost the health system around $1 million, according to court documents.
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