Class Action Filed Against Horizon Actuarial Services in Wake of November 2021 Data Breach [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on December 1, 2023
Sherwood v. Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC
Filed: April 19, 2022 ◆§ 1:22-mi-99999
Horizon Actuarial Services faces a lawsuit over a data breach during which its clients’ sensitive information was reportedly exposed to unauthorized access.
Case Updates
December 1, 2023 – Official Horizon Actuarial Services Data Breach Settlement Website Is Live
The official website for the Horizon Actuarial Services 2021 data breach class action settlement detailed below is live and can be found at HorizonDataSettlement.com.
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The settlement, which was preliminarily approved by the court on September 21, 2023, covers around 3,892,966 individuals whose personal information may have been impacted during the November 2021 data breach, including those who received a notice from Horizon Actuarial Services about the incident.
The parties now await final approval of the settlement terms from United States District Judge Eleanor L. Ross.
To receive a share of the settlement funds, class members must file a claim form online or by mail by February 21, 2024. To submit a claim online, head to this page.
As part of the settlement, Horizon will pay up to a total of $8,733,446, which will be distributed among class members who file timely, valid claims. A $50,000 payment from this fund will also be allocated to one or more court-approved charities as a cy pres award.
The website shares that individual settlement payments may be reduced on a pro rata basis should the total claims exceed the roughly $8.7 million total fund.
A final approval hearing is scheduled for March 25, 2024. Payments will be distributed to eligible class members after the court grants final approval to the deal, and after any objections or appeals are resolved.
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October 26, 2023 – Horizon Actuarial Services Data Breach Lawsuit Settled for $7.75 Million
Horizon Actuarial Services has agreed to pay $7.75 million to settle the proposed class action detailed on this page, according to a memo submitted to the court on September 20, 2023.
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The deal, which was preliminarily approved by U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross on September 21, covers about 3,892,966 individuals whose personal information may have been involved in the Horizon Actuarial Services data breach, including those who received a letter from the company about the incident.
Class members who file a valid, timely claim can receive up to $50 cash, although this amount may decrease depending on how many valid claims are submitted. Those who submit a valid claim with supporting documentation can receive a maximum of $5,000 for certain out-of-pocket losses incurred as a result of the incident.
Eligible consumers who spent time mitigating the effects of the data breach can check a box on their claim form to receive $25 for each hour they lost, with a cap of $125.
“Claims for lost time can be combined with claims for Out-of-Pocket loss but are subject to the $5,000 aggregate cap,” the settlement specifies.
The deal also provides an additional $50 to each class member who attests that they were a California resident when the Horizon Actuarial Services data breach occurred.
“California Claims are not subject to the $5,000 aggregate cap for Compensation for Out-of-Pocket Losses and Compensation for Lost Time,” court documents say, adding that the $50 payment for Californians may also decrease relative to the number of valid claims submitted.
Finally, the settlement fund will allocate $50,000 towards one or more court-approved charities as a cy pres award.
A final approval hearing for this settlement is set to take place on March 25, 2024. It is typically after a settlement receives final approval from the court, and any appeals or objections to the settlement are resolved, that class members will receive compensation.
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May 5, 2022 – Horizon Hit with Another Class Action
Another proposed class action was filed against Horizon Actuarial Services over the company’s November 2021 data breach.
The 48-page case, filed April 28 in Georgia, states that the breach affected more than 2.5 million current and former Horizon customers. According to the complaint, data breach victims will now face a heightened risk of identity theft and fraud for the rest of their lives due to the defendant’s alleged failure to safeguard their information.
“Plaintiff and Class Members have no ability to protect themselves, as these criminals can easily access and/or offer for sale the unencrypted, unredacted [personally identifiable information] to other criminals,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendant’s customers face a lifetime risk of identity theft, which is heightened by the loss of their Social Security numbers.”
The case looks to represent anyone in the U.S. whose personally identifiable information was accessed or exfiltrated during the Horizon Actuarial Services data breach in 2021.
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Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC faces a proposed class action over a November 2021 data breach during which its clients’ sensitive information was reportedly exposed to unauthorized access.
According to the 42-page lawsuit, Horizon failed to adequately safeguard consumers’ personally identifiable information from “[c]riminal hackers,” who on November 10 and 11, 2021 allegedly accessed the data stored on the company’s servers for “a limited period.”
Per the suit, the breach affected multiemployer and Taft-Hartley benefit plans to whom Horizon provided actuarial services. The case says consumers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and health plan information were exposed during the incident.
The lawsuit argues that Horizon’s failure to protect consumers’ information is “particularly egregious” since the frequency of recent data breaches in the financial industry should have made the hack “highly foreseeable.”
Those whose information was compromised now face a “significant present and future risk” of identity theft and fraud, and will be forced to remain vigilant “for years to come,” the lawsuit stresses.
According to the case, the data breach was a direct result of Horizon’s failure to properly secure, monitor and maintain the personally identifiable information stored on its servers, which belonged to participants in the benefit plans to whom Horizon provided actuarial services. These clients include the benefit plans for Major League Baseball players, the National Hockey League Players Association and a number of labor unions, according to the complaint.
The full list of affected benefit plans can be found in the “notice of data incident” published on Horizon’s website.
The suit alleges that even though the breach occurred in November, Horizon waited until January 2022 to begin notifying those whose information was affected. During this time, the case says, victims remained “unaware that their sensitive personal identifying information had been compromised,” and that they faced a significant risk of identity theft and fraud.
The plaintiff in the case says he did not receive a data breach notice until April 14, 2022, though the notice was dated April 8. Per the suit, Horizon has “done very little” to adequately protect the plaintiff and other data breach victims or compensate them for the injuries they’ve experienced as a result of the breach. Though the company has offered identity monitoring services, these services reportedly last “only for one year,” which the lawsuit contends is “wholly inadequate” to protect consumers whose Social Security numbers were compromised.
The case looks to represent anyone in the U.S. whose personally identifiable information was hosted by Horizon Actuarial Services and compromised as a result of the data breach.
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