Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is currently investigating Advocates, Inc., a Massachusetts based organization that provides disability-related care services, for failing to safeguard sensitive client and employee information in a data breach that occurred in October of 2021. The data breach occurred when files from the Advocates website were copied and removed from the organization’s digital environment by an unauthorized actor. Some of the information copied from the Advocates website included the personal identifying information of Advocates clients and employees, and the organization revealed that the attack exposed the information of nearly 70,000 individuals. Examples of the types of data exposed in the leak include names, dates of birth, addresses, social security numbers, medical records, lab results, diagnoses, medications, health insurance information, and dates of services.
While Advocates claims that it found no evidence to suggest that the information was misused, cybercriminals commonly use information obtained from data breaches to commit a wide variety of identity theft. For example, in previous data breaches where files were removed from a healthcare provider’s website, this data has been used in fraudulent requests for credit services, as well as banking and medical procedures without permission. Individuals in previous breaches have had to pay out of pocket for credit monitoring or for new fraudulent charges. Some Advocates clients and employees may have noticed suspicious credit or banking activity, disrupted medical care, or medical appointments fraudulently created, canceled, and/or billed in their name.
Have you received a data breach notification letter from Advocates, Inc. in the past year?
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The lawyers at Migliaccio & Rathod LLP have years of experience in class action litigation against large corporations, including in cases involving data breaches. More information about our current cases and investigations is available on our blog.