Lawyers for people suing Excellus over a data breach now say there are at least six people who are victims of identity theft. Those people include current and former members of Excellus or Lifetime Care, which mostly are from the Rochester area. Their information was used to make fraudulent purchases.
A lawsuit against Excellus names nine people affected by the breach that compromised the personal information of ten million customers.
Faraci Lange filed the Excellus lawsuit, which they hope will be certified as a class action suit. Attorney Hadley Matarazzo is handling the case. She said all of the victims reached out to the law firm after learning they were impacted. While there is no dollar amount named in the suit, Matarazzo said a possible settlement would benefit anyone impacted by the breach. Any potential victim would be notified and have the option to opt out if they don't want to be included.
Excellus spokesman Jim Redmond said the company does not comment on litigation. In past statements, the company has called this a sophisticated cyberattack which the FBI is investigating. The insurer is urging people who receive letters notifying them they were affected by this to apply for free credit monitoring.
Matarazzo said the lawsuit maintains that Excellus did not do enough to protect customers' personal information and that it took too long to detect the breach.