Class action lawsuits filed in NJ over Cooper Health privacy breach

💲Cooper Health System network reported 'suspicious' activity in May 2024

💲An investigation determined 57,000 patients were affected

💲The breach was not made public for nearly a year

At least two class action lawsuits have been filed against Cooper Health System over its data breach that affected over 57,000 patients.

The healthcare company said it commissioned an investigation by cybersecurity experts into "unusual activity" detected in May 2024. The investigation was completed in March and patients whose records were affected were notified. Cooper released news of the breach on Wednesday.

The hospital did not disclose the number of patients affected. According to a notice by Maine's attorney general, 57,412 customers were impacted by the breach.

According to one federal class action lawsuit obtained by NJ.com, plaintiff  Ana Hernandez says she has experienced "a significant uptick in spam calls, text messages, and emails.” Chester Simonds has "suffered anxiety" about the breach because of the potential consequences that identity theft and fraud, according to another suit obtained by the Bucks County Courier Post. Both said the breach has caused them anxiety.

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Time lost verifying breach

Tiffany Hines filed a third lawsuit claiming that she lost time verifying the impact of the brief, spent time exploring credit monitoring and identity theft insurance options and seeking legal counsel.

The health company has said there is no evidence that any of the records obtained were used fraudulently. The breach occurred in May 2024 but Cooper did not make it public until March at the conclusion of an investigation it commissioned into suspicious activity on its network.

Cooper said it was not aware of any misuse of the hacked information.

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