Five southwestern Ontario hospitals that were recently the victims of a ransomware attack that resulted in a massive data breach are now facing a proposed $480 million class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit, launched by a patient of Bluewater Health in Sarnia, alleges that the mental health of the class action members has been impacted as a result of the data breach, causing undue anxiety and distress.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit statement of claim have been proven in court.
The class action suit names Bluewater, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and Windsor Regional Hospital, along with the IT company that services them, TransForm Shared Service Organization.
The October 23 ransomware attack resulted in varying amounts of patient and staff data being stolen from each hospital. Leadership at all five hospitals made the decision not to give in to the demands of the cybercriminals responsible, and as a result, the data was published online.
The hardest hit by the attack was Bluewater Health. Hospital officials have reported that among the stolen data was information about approximately 5.6 million patient visits to the Sarnia hospital made by approximately 267,000 unique patients.
Hospital leadership has confirmed to CKXS News that they have been served with a lawsuit related to the cyberattack.
“As this is now a legal matter before the courts, we will not be commenting,” hospital officials said.