Mayo Clinic Resolves Another Data Breach Lawsuit
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Mayo Clinic has apparently settled another lawsuit stemming from a data breach by a former Mayo Clinic employee.
The lawsuit was filed in November 2020 by Olga Ryabchuk and sought class-action status on behalf of the more than 1600 Mayo Clinic patients who had their medical records improperly accessed. The case was officially dismissed by an Olmsted County Judge on December 30th at the request of the parties involved. The terms of the apparent settlement have not been disclosed.
When the data breach was disclosed by the Mayo Clinic in October 2020, it blamed former Mayo employee Ahmad Alsughhayer, alleging he may have viewed information about the names of patients, demographic information, date of birth, medical record numbers, clinical notes, and images. The lawsuit claimed those images included nude photos taken for medical purposes.
Alsughhayer now lives in Michigan and faces a gross misdemeanor charge of unauthorized computer access in connection with the data breach. He pleaded not guilty to the charge in August 2021 and demanded a jury trial, but there hasn't been any activity in his criminal case since then.
A similar lawsuit filed against the Mayo Clinic was settled out of court last August, but at least one other case is still pending. It was filed in Olmsted County Court in May 2021 and is currently scheduled for trial in September.