Cybersecurity and Data Breaches

October 17, 2023

Healthcare clearinghouse Inmediata, which facilitates transactions between healthcare providers and insurers, has agreed to pay $1.4 million to 33 states in connection with a data breach that affected approximately 1.5 million consumers for nearly three years.  Despite being alerted to the data breach in 2019, Inmediata failed to notify consumers for over three months.  When it finally did send notice, the notices were misaddressed or unclear, leaving many consumers to believe the notices were fraudulent.  DE AG; NC AG

October 17, 2023

ACI Worldwide, a third-party payment processor for clients such as mortgage service provider Nationstar Mortgage (a/k/a Mr. Cooper), has agreed to pay $10 million to all 50 states for its role in a 2021 testing error that impacted 477,000 Mr. Cooper clients nationwide.  While testing out a platform being offered to Mr. Cooper clients, ACI accidentally submitted live consumer data into the ACH system, which caused ACI to erroneously withdraw $2.3 billion from consumer accounts through 1.4 million transactions, and consequently caused consumers to incur overdraft or insufficient funds fees.  A government investigation ultimately attributed this to ACI’s defective privacy and data security procedures and technical infrastructure.  CA AG; DE AG; PA AG; OR AG; VA AG

October 5, 2023

Software company Blackbaud has agreed to pay $49.5 million to 50 states in connection with a 2020 data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers.  Additionally, the company failed to immediately report, and after failed to reveal the full scope and impact, of the breach.  In addition to the monetary penalty, Blackbaud will overhaul its data security and breach notification practices.  NJ AG; OR AG; PA AG; NC AG; VA AG

September 8, 2023

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals have agreed to pay $49 million to settle claims of unlawfully disposing hazardous medical waste and protected health information for 16 different facilities.  The misconduct violated California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Customer Records Law, Unfair Competition Law, and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  Under the settlement, Kaiser must also retain an independent third-party auditor to ensure Kaiser’s compliance with applicable laws.  CA AG

September 5, 2023

Verizon Business Network Services LLC has agreed to pay over $4 million in connection with its Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service (MTIPS), which provides federal agencies with secure connections to the internet.  The company self-disclosed that its MTIPS service failed to comply with General Services Administration (GSA) contracts because it didn’t satisfy required cybersecurity protocols.  DOJ

July 19, 2023

Amazon.com Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Amazon.com Services LLC have agreed to pay a $25 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that its voice assistant service Alexa violated the Federal Trade Commission Act, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.  Since at least May 2018, Amazon has retained indefinitely and by default voice recordings of children interacting with Alexa. The company also falsely represented that such recordings, including transcriptions and geolocation information, could be deleted by Alexa users, when in fact user deletion requests were not always honored.  As part of the settlement, Amazon will have to identify and delete inactive child profiles and notify users about its retention and deletion practices.  DOJ

June 27, 2023

ACI Worldwide and its subsidiary, ACI Payments, will pay a $25 million civil penalty for improperly initiating around $2.3 billion in unlawful mortgage payment transactions, impacting nearly 500,000 homeowners with mortgages serviced by Mr. Cooper f/k/a Nationstar. ACI offers payment processing services across a wide range of industries. ACI conducted tests of its electronic payments platform on April 23, 2021. Rather than using deidentified, dummy data, ACI used client data files from Mr. Cooper instead, causing massive overdraft fees and other negative financial consequences to the unsuspecting borrowers. The CFPB found ACI in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, for illegally initiating withdrawals from borrower bank accounts, and improperly handling sensitive consumer data. ACI must pay the $25 million as well as adopt and enforce reasonable information security practices, and is prohibited from processing payments without obtaining proper authorization. CFPB