A lawsuit is filed against LifeLabs for a data breach incident

Richard M.

January 07, 2020

2 minutes read

As reported earlier, the Canadian laboratory testing company, LifeLabs was hit with a cyber-attack which resulted in a data breach of 15 million customers. Following the incident, the lawsuit is filed against the company.

On October 28, 2019, LifeLabs reported the data breach to the government partners, however, waited until December 17, to announce publically. The accessed data included some sensitive information, customers’ name, emails, addresses, login credentials, dob, health card numbers, and lab test results.

LifeLabs paid an undisclosed amount to the cyber-criminals who accessed the data with a promise that they won’t disclose any information publically. Nevertheless, the lawyers Peter Waldmann and Andrew Stein filed the statement against LifeLabs in Ontario Superior Court accusing them of contract breach and negligence, on December 27. Moreover, the statement indicated the violation of consumer protection laws and their customers’ privacy.

The lawsuit was filed on the behalf of plaintiffs also included the lead plaintiff Christopher Sparling. He alleged in the statement that LifeLabs violated their own privacy policy since they failed to implement and follow the adequate cybersecurity measures and checks to detect the potential risks and threats to Customers’ data and swiftly respond them within time.

In addition, the statement also accused LifeLabs to store the customers’ information on unsecured servers and networks without any encryption protocol and they neglected the need to hire cybersecurity professionals for network security management.

LifeLabs facing proposed class action lawsuit over data breach: TORONTO – A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against medical services company LifeLabs over a data breach that allowed hackers to access the personal information of up to 15… https://t.co/Kig7MkHRKW pic.twitter.com/fNHNaZhOTN

— Canadian Underwriter (@CdnUnderwriter) January 3, 2020

While the lawyers are seeking more than $1.13 billion in compensation for the breach victims to make up for the mental anguish, damage to credit reputation and the wasted time that had to undergo, the plaintiffs are looking for additional moral and punitive damages.

After the public announcement of the breach, LifeLabs set up a toll-free helpline on December 18 and received more than 5000 calls from concerned customers.