"Given the risk involved and the amount of data at issue, MIE's breach of its duties was entirely unreasonable," stated plaintiff attorneys according to the paper.

Eric Jones, co-founder and CEO of Medical Informatics Engineering, confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday that the company is aware of the two pending lawsuits.


"Our primary focus at this time is on responding to requests for information to those affected and helping them to enroll in credit monitoring and identity protection services," he said.

Underscoring the complexity of a plaintiff winning in such lawsuits, Fred Cate, a cybersecurity expert, noted to Indiana Public Media, “Even if you show some sort of damage like ‘I worry about it now’ or ‘I apprehend that I may be the victim of identity theft,’ how do you quantify that loss?” Cate says. “Right now, most companies are giving one or two or more years of credit monitoring. What more do you want? Will paying $5 to everyone whose information has been breached do anything to make them feel better or get companies to do more? It might. I think the jury is still out on that.”

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