In light of the most recent breach of personal and health information at Baystate Health, Attorney Kevin Chrisanthopoulos from KC Law in downtown Westfield has filed a class action lawsuit against the institution. An experienced litigator, Chrisanthopoulos focuses his practice on personal injury law, business and civil litigation and medical malpractice. Prior to founding KC Law in Westfield, Chrisanthopoulos worked as a trial attorney for 18 years for several large law firms in Boston, Worcester and Springfield.“In February 2019, a hacker gained access to more than 12,000 patient accounts through a phishing attack,” explained Attorney Chrisanthopoulos. “This exposed patient’s personal information including their names, addresses, dates of birth and health information such as diagnoses and treatment information.” He furthered, “Baystate Health didn’t make a public announcement that their information was compromised until April.A hospital spokesperson corroborated the breach in a statement to WWLP, affirming the nature of the exposed information, furthering that a limited number of Medicare numbers and social security numbers may also have been accessed. The institution also issued a statement on their website about the phishing.According to a 2018 survey conducted by Javelin Strategy & research, 16.7 million Americans have been affected by identity fraud, up from 12.6 million in 2012. For the first time ever, Social Security numbers (35 percent) were compromised more than credit card numbers (30 percent) in breaches.“This isn’t the first time the medical center allowed confidential information to be accessed,” furthered Chrisanthopoulos. “This is unconscionable and we need to send a message that this cannot happen again.”