Santa Clara, CA: Banner Health is facing a data breach class action lawsuit brought by Howard Chen, MD, who works at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, AZ.
The lawsuit asserts that Banner, which is based in Pheonix, AZ, was negligent in protecting people’s information, essentially allowing the data breach to occur.
Chen is among the 3.7 million patients, health plan members, customers and providers whose personal information may have been compromised in the cyberattack. The lawsuit claims that hackers gained access to Banner Health computer servers, including those that process payment card information where food and beverages are sold. It is the largest data breach to date this year.
As compensation, Banner is offering free credit and identity monitoring to all affected individuals for one year. However, the lawsuit asserts that these steps are not sufficient reparation, because cyber criminals will wait a couple of years to use stolen information, often after monitoring periods expire.
Banner Health owns and operates 29 hospitals in seven states including University Medical Center Phoenix, formerly Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Plaintiffs are represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.
