Mason LLP filed a Class Action Lawsuit against OakBend Medical Center (“OakBend”) on November 17, 2022. OakBend is a nonprofit hospital located in Texas that has been providing healthcare services to the Greater Houston Area since 1947. It employs over 450 physicians along with 1,200 other staff members. On September 1, 2022, OakBend found that cybercriminals hacked into OakBend’s computer systems and removed the entire medical record of patients and certain employee data files. This breach has affected over 500,000 people. OakBend sent out a notice letter to those affected that their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers or government-issued ID numbers, financial information, medical information, health insurance information, etc., may have been compromised. OakBend failed to have adequate data security for its computer systems, so cyber criminals could easily steal the Private Information of many people. 

Data Breaches are not uncommon in the healthcare industry, and OakBend should have been prepared by having reasonable data security measures in place to prevent a breach like this. Due to OakBend’s failure to have taken appropriate measures to protect the Private Information of its patients and employees, victims will have to spend time and money now to mitigate those risks of identity theft.