Bienville Orthopaedic Specialists Sued Over March 2023 Data Breach
Bienville Orthopaedic Specialists in Gautier, Mississippi, is being sued by a patient whose protected health information was stolen in a February 2023 cyberattack. Bienville Orthopaedic Specialists identified unauthorized activity within its IT systems on March 5, 2023. The forensic investigation confirmed an unauthorized individual had access to its computer systems between February 3, 2023, and March 5, 2023, and exfiltrated sensitive data including names, Social Security numbers, medical information, health insurance information, usernames and passwords, financial account information, and driver’s license numbers. Complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services were offered to the affected individuals.
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Justin G. Witkin from the law firm Justin G. Witkin in the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of Bienville patient Robert Harris. The lawsuit alleges Bienville failed to implement reasonable and appropriate security measures to ensure the privacy of its patients, did not follow industry standards for cybersecurity, and failed to comply with federal cybersecurity guidelines. As a result of those failures, the protected health information of almost 243,000 was compromised, and some of that information has been published on the dark web where it is available to anyone.
Mr. Harris claims that he has had to deal with increased numbers of spam calls and emails following the data breach, and has incurred expenses and had to spend time protecting himself against identity theft and fraud. The lawsuit also takes issue with the content of the breach notifications, which did not state what measures were being taken by Bienville to prevent further data breaches in the future.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, payment for credit monitoring and identity protection services, and an order from the court requiring Bienville to implement measures to improve data security.
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