<b><i>Online Extra</b></i> Anthem Fires Back at Data Breach Suit

In October, plaintiffs'co-lead counsel'Eve Cervantez of Altshuler Berzon and Andrew Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll filed a 200-plus page consolidated amended complaint seeking relief on behalf of 53 separate statewide classes. To deal with a manageable slice of the case at the motion to dismiss stage, Koh asked the plaintiffs to put forward their five strongest claims while letting defendants pick the five where they think they can mount the strongest case.

In Anthem's motion filed Monday, Craig Hoover of Hogan Lovells points out that in the past two years data thieves have targeted other companies including eBay, Target, Home Depot, and JPMorgan Chase as well as the federal government's Office of Personnel Management. Hoover maintains that even plaintiffs who have been victims of fraud since the breach have failed to allege 'that any purported fraud was caused by the cyberattack on Anthem.' Hoover further contends that plaintiffs cannot show that they would have paid less for their health insurance had they known about the company's allegedly inadequate data security practices.

Plaintiffs are set to respond to Anthem's motion next month. Koh is scheduled to hear arguments on the motion in February.

Ross Todd'writes for'The Recorder,'an ALM sibling of'e-Commerce Law & Strategy.'He can be reached at'[email protected].

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Anthem Inc., the nation's second largest health insurer, has taken its first swing at narrowing litigation stemming from a major data breach affecting about 80 million customers.

In court papers filed late last month, Anthem's lawyers at Hogan Lovells maintain that customers have failed to show any actual damages as a result of the cyberattack on Anthem, especially since the company has offered two years of free credit monitoring to all those affected.

Anthem announced in February that hackers accessed a database containing customer records, including names, birthdates, home addresses, and Social Security numbers. More than 100 breach-related suits were filed against Anthem and affiliated companies in state and federal courts across the country in the months that followed. In June, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the suits to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California.

In October, plaintiffs'co-lead counsel'Eve Cervantez of Altshuler Berzon and Andrew Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll filed a 200-plus page consolidated amended complaint seeking relief on behalf of 53 separate statewide classes. To deal with a manageable slice of the case at the motion to dismiss stage, Koh asked the plaintiffs to put forward their five strongest claims while letting defendants pick the five where they think they can mount the strongest case.

In Anthem's motion filed Monday, Craig Hoover of Hogan Lovells points out that in the past two years data thieves have targeted other companies including eBay, Target, Home Depot, and JPMorgan Chase as well as the federal government's Office of Personnel Management. Hoover maintains that even plaintiffs who have been victims of fraud since the breach have failed to allege 'that any purported fraud was caused by the cyberattack on Anthem.' Hoover further contends that plaintiffs cannot show that they would have paid less for their health insurance had they known about the company's allegedly inadequate data security practices.

Plaintiffs are set to respond to Anthem's motion next month. Koh is scheduled to hear arguments on the motion in February.

Ross Todd'writes for'The Recorder,'an ALM sibling of'e-Commerce Law & Strategy.'He can be reached at'[email protected].

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