What stands to be the largest data breach settlement in history has been proposed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Altshuler Berzon, Cohen Milstein, Girard Gibbs and Lieff Cabraser lawyers, representing the plaintiffs in the Anthem Data Breach Litigation (MDL No. 2617) filed the motion last week for $115 million. The proposed settlement dates back to the 2015 cyberattack of health insurer, Anthem, Inc., in which the personal information for 78.8 million people were stolen. Subsequently, more than 100 lawsuits were filed against Anthem across the country. The cases were consolidated in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California before attorneys lawyers from the aforementioned firms were court-appointed to lead the representation of the plaintiffs.
The proposed settlement provides for Anthem to establish a $115 million settlement fund, which will be used to:
- provide victims of the data breach at least two years of credit monitoring;
- cover out-of-pocket expenses incurred by consumers as a result of the data breach; and
- provide cash compensation for those consumers who are already enrolled in credit monitoring.
In addition to the monetary fund, the settlement will require Anthem to guarantee a certain level of funding for information security and to implement or maintain numerous specific changes to its data security systems, including encryption of certain information and archiving sensitive data with strict access controls.
“After two years of intensive litigation and hard work by the parties, we are pleased that consumers who were affected by this data breach will be protected going forward and compensated for past losses,” said Eve Cervantez of Altschuler Berzon, co-lead counsel representing the plaintiffs in the Anthem litigation.
For additional updates and information about the lawsuit and settlement, visit the Anthem Data Breach Litigation Website.