A settlement is expected to be reached in a class action brought against the NSW Ambulance Service relating to sensitive health and personal information that was illegally sold by a contractor. Centennial Lawyers filed a class action in the Supreme Court of NSW on 20 November 2017 on behalf of all NSW Ambulance 130 employees and contractors whose sensitive health and personal information was inadvertently accessed between 14 January 2013 and 1 February 2013. A contractor was given access to NSW Ambulance Service’s records and database, he then collected and sold this information and, in 2016, was found guilty of unlawfully disclosing the information. The ABC reported at the time that a third party, “who paid thousands of dollars for the data, was a group of injury lawyers”. Centennial Lawyers issued a statement saying the case has been a long journey for lead plaintiff, Tracy Evans, and the other staff who had theirworkers compensation files, staff and medical records accessed by a NSW Ambulance contractor. The workers compensation records contained highly sensitive medical and, in some cases, mental health information about on-duty NSW paramedics. “Employers have a duty of confidence to their employees and they must take adequate steps to protect their employee records and this case highlights the damage that can be done if data security is breached,” principal solicitor ofCentennial LawyersGeorge Newhousesaid. “While there have been many successful data breach class actions in the US and Canada such as those against Yahoo, Wendy’s and Target, there have been none concluded in Australia.” A NSW Ambulance spokesperson told CIO Australiain a statement that the well-being of its staff, and the security of their personal information, is of paramount importance to NSW Ambulance. “NSW Ambulance reported the rogue actions of former temporary contractor Malik to NSW Police and provided every assistance to law enforcement officers during the criminal investigation and prosecution in 2013. “NSW Ambulance is unable to comment on any ongoing civil litigation.” The court hearing is set for 4pm today at the Law Courts Building in Sydney. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe