Blue Shield of California Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over April 2024 Data Breach

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Blue Shield of California faces a proposed class action lawsuit over an April 2024 data breach that reportedly compromised the personal information of current and former customers.

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The 34-page data breach suit says that California Physicians’ Service, which does business as Blue Shield of California, was impacted by a cyberattack targeting Young Consulting, a third party that provides the health insurance company with risk management services. According to a data breach notice letter sent on behalf of Blue Shield, an unauthorized actor apparently gained access to Young Consulting’s computer network and downloaded copies of certain files stored therein between April 10 and April 13, 2024.

The lawsuit relays that files stolen in the Young Consulting data breach contained personal information belonging to Blue Shield customers. As a result, the case charges, individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and insurance claim details have been exposed to cybercriminals.

The complaint alleges the incident stemmed from Blue Shield’s “woefully inadequate” cybersecurity practices and argues that the insurer failed to take necessary steps to prevent unauthorized disclosure of customers’ sensitive data.

In addition, data breach victims were not notified about the incident until late August of this year, several months after the cyberattack was purportedly detected, the filing contends.

“As a result of [Blue Shield’s] delay between the data breach in April and the notice of the data breach sent to affected persons in August, the risk of fraud for [the plaintiff] and class members increased exponentially,” the class action lawsuit asserts.

Blue Shield’s negligent conduct will have a widespread impact on victims’ lives, the suit claims.

“Once private information is sold, it is often used to gain access to various areas of the victim’s digital life, including bank accounts, social media, credit card, and tax details,” the case says. “This can lead to additional private information being harvested from the victim, as well as private information from family, friends and colleagues of the original victim.”

The Blue Shield of California lawsuit looks to represent anyone residing in the United States whose private information was compromised in the data breach, including those who were sent notice of the incident.

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