Florida’s Watson Clinic has agreed to a $10 million settlement following class action litigation arising from a January 2024 data breach that compromised the personal information of 280,278 individuals. The breach involved hackers gaining unauthorized access to the clinic’s network starting January 26, 2024, with detection occurring on February 6. Stolen data included highly sensitive protected health information (PHI): names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial data, government IDs, and medical details - along with pre- and post-operative digital images. Many of these images were later posted on the dark web.

Following a months-long review completed in July 2024, Watson Clinic publicly disclosed the breach in August 2024 and notified affected individuals. Two class action lawsuits were subsequently filed and consolidated into a single case, Viviani v. Watson Clinic, LLP. Plaintiffs alleged negligence, breach of implied contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

This incident underscores the critical need for organizations to proactively detect attack vectors and automatically remediate intrusions before they escalate into catastrophic breaches with a system like NIKSUN. Early detection of unauthorized access, lateral movement, or data exfiltration attempts can prevent exposure of sensitive PHI and eliminate the downstream costs of class action settlements, regulatory penalties, and violations of frameworks such as HIPAA, NIST, CMMC, and SEC cybersecurity rules. Advanced detection and automated containment capabilities allow teams to stop intrusions before attackers can steal data or publish private images online - ultimately safeguarding patients, protecting organizational reputation, and avoiding multi-million-dollar legal and compliance consequences.