Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over 2023 R3 Education Data Breach

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A proposed class action accuses R3 Education Inc. of failing to protect consumers’ private data during a “massive and preventable” cyberattack reportedly discovered in November 2023.

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The 47-page data breach lawsuit claims the cyberattack was the result of lax data security policies on the part of R3 Education, which owns the Saba University School of Medicine, Medical University of the Americas and St. Mattew’s University. The suit relays that during the incident, an unauthorized third party gained access to the company’s computer network and encrypted certain information stored therein.

According to the case, the data breach may have exposed individuals’ names, dates of birth, driver’s license or government-issued ID numbers, medical and health information, student ID numbers and electronic signatures.

The complaint contends that R3 Education negligently failed to take reasonable measures to safeguard the highly sensitive data in its care, which was allegedly stored unencrypted and unprotected in its network. As the filing tells it, the company could have prevented the cyberattack entirely had it properly encrypted its servers and the data they housed.

Moreover, although the defendant claims to have discovered the data breach on November 7, 2023, it waited until late March of this year to notify victims, the lawsuit points out. Per the suit, the notice letter provided only “basic details” and lacked essential information about the incident, such as how cybercriminals gained access to R3 Education’s computer system, where the stolen data exists today and what steps are being taken to better secure the network against future attacks.

As a result, the case charges, victims of the data breach have been “left to speculate as to where their [protected health information/personally identifiable information] ended up, who has used it, and for what potentially nefarious purposes.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was exposed to unauthorized third parties as a result of the data breach discovered by R3 Education on November 7, 2023.

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