Thousands of former, current and prospective Medibank customers are suing the private health insurer in a class action lawsuit over its 2022 data breach.
A class action is a lawsuit brought by multiple people to sue a defendant for the same or similar reasons.
Medibank says it will defend itself against the allegations.
What’s the background on the Medibank hack?
Medibank was subject to a data breach in October last year. It’s believed to be the work of Russian hackers.
About 9.7 million Australians who had provided details to Medibank or their health insurance subsidiary ahm were affected.
The hackers posted data obtained during the breach online after Medibank rejected ransom requests.
Why is Medibank being sued?
The class action was lodged in the Federal Court by Australian law firm Slater & Gordon this week.
Any person affected by the breach can register to join, regardless of whether they are Australian citizens. This could include international students, for example.
A separate class action against Medibank over the data breach was filed in the Victorian Supreme Court in March and another was submitted to the Federal Court in February.
The Slater & Gordon class action alleges Medibank failed to take reasonable steps to protect personal information on its systems.
The lawyers say Medibank breached its own contract and its duty of care to customers, and also broke Australian consumer law and national privacy principles by failing to protect personal data.
