New York’s Staten Island. Richmond University Medical Center is being sued by two residents of Staten Island who claim that the hospital violated their privacy by exposing protected health information and personally identifiable information to unauthorized individuals, particularly malicious hackers, through a data breach.
The plaintiffs in the case, Kaitia Charitable of Richmond and Matthew Counts of West Brighton, filed the class action complaint in Brooklyn federal court on December 30. According to court filings, the class in question is all other people in a similar situation.
According to Counts and Charitable, the West Brighton hospital claimed to be dedicated to safeguarding the privacy of information collected on patients to whom they deliver health-related services, and it provided verified assurance that its website was safe and secure.
According to court documents, Richmond University failed to maintain sufficient systems and procedures to guarantee the security of extremely sensitive data that patients entrusted to it. As a result, the plaintiffs’ and class members’ private information was made available to hackers and/or cybercriminals.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that the hospital profited from using less expensive, inefficient security procedures at the risk of letting the plaintiffs’ data be hacked.
According to the complaint, the defendant’s failure to put in place and adhere to the fundamental security protocols required to safeguard the private information of its customers directly caused the data breach.
The lawsuit also claims that although Richmond University was notified of the breach on May 6, 2023, the majority of customers were not made aware of it until they received a notification letter from the hospital on December 19, 2024, which was 19 months after the breach took place. The hospital wrote in that letter:
We found that an unauthorized actor gained unlawful access to our network, which led to the acquisition of specific files. As soon as we became aware of this problem, we took swift action to secure the threat and launch a full investigation. In order to ascertain whether any sensitive data had been compromised as a result of the occurrence, we conducted our investigation in cooperation with outside cybersecurity experts who frequently look into and assess these kinds of circumstances.
The letter continues by stating that while the first forensic investigation concluded that the incident had no impact on our electronic health records system, the inquiry later found that some further data might have been read or deleted from our network on or around May 6, 2023.
However, the plaintiffs assert that their private information, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, government identification information, health insurance information, and medical information, was accessed by hackers and made available to an untold number of unauthorized individuals as a result of the breach and the period of time they claim passed before they were informed of it.
According to the lawsuit, plaintiffs and class members were unable to take proactive measures to prevent injury or take aggressive action to try to lessen any harm during that time.
While they continue to face an increased risk of fraud, identity theft, and other misuses of their personal and health information, Counts and Charitable claim that they and the other plaintiffs experienced emotional distress and were forced to spend time and possibly future expenses monitoring their financial information. They do not specifically mention any incidents that occurred as a result of the data breach.
According to court filings, Counts, Charitable, and the other class action participants are requesting compensation in an amount that they want decided at a jury trial.
According to a hospital spokesperson who talked to Advance/SILive.com, the hospital does not comment on litigation-related issues while the lawsuit is being reviewed by the courts.
Email requests for comment from the plaintiffs’ attorneys were not answered.
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