Genworth Backs Consolidating Federal MOVEit Breach Suits in Massachusetts

The current panel chair is U.S. District Court Judge Karen Caldwell, a judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Consolidation Views

Genworth, a big life insurance, annuity and long-term care insurance provider, is listed as a defendant on several Cl0p-related suits partly because it used PBI Research Services to administer its insurance policies and annuity contracts and partly because it was one of the first big companies to send out breach notices.

The insurer said in a brief filed last week with the MDL panel that centralizing the cases would increase efficiency; that the Massachusetts court has skilled judges who are experienced with handling multidistrict litigation; and that the Massachusetts court is close to the office of Progress Software Corp., the company that sells the MOVEit system.

Genworth simply hired PBI Research Services, a vendor that used MOVEit, and it does not believe there is any basis for holding it liable for vulnerabilities in the software, according to the brief.

But, “if there is any wrongdoer here aside from the unauthorized third party who accessed MOVEit, it will be revealed through discovery and proceedings centered on the work and conduct of PSC and PBI,” Genworth told the court.

Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, for example, are asking the MDL panel to keep the suits filed against it in Maryland, based partly on the argument that none of the plaintiffs that have sued it over the MOVEit breach have named PBI as a defendant.

The Equifax Breach

The MDL panel has handled waves of litigation related to big data breaches before.

In 2017, a data breach at Equifax exposed the personal data of about 147 million U.S. Consumers.

Equifax ended up facing more than 250 lawsuits and regulations. In 2017, the MDL panel decided to consolidate the federal Equifax litigation in Atlanta.

Equifax ended up settling with the consumers involved in the Atlanta litigation for about $1.4 billion.

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