Less than 24 hours after Anthem announced hackers had stolen the data of as many as 80 million of its current and former customers, the insurer was hit with a putative class-action lawsuit in California, and Anthem is now facing a class-action lawsuit in Alabama over the breach as well.
The woman who filed the lawsuit in California accuses Anthem of failing to properly secure and protect its customers' personal information, according to Bloomberg. The lawsuit asks for damages "for violations of California's unfair competition and data breach law, among other claims," according to the report. The case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The federal lawsuit filed against Anthem in Alabama also accuses the insurer of failing to protect its customers' information, according to a Law360 report.
Although the first two lawsuits were filed very soon after the data hack was announced, the lawsuits in California and Alabama are likely to be the first of many suits over the breach.
Irwin Levin, managing partner of Cohen & Malad in Indianapolis, told the Indianapolis Business Journal he was preparing a class-action lawsuit against Anthem. "We'll be suing them for breach of contract, for negligence and some other legal theories," he told the IBJ.
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