When a person is seeking to recover for a material loss, they need to prove that loss. For instance, a loss in income would generally require an accountant to prove that income was actually lost. If one was claiming they incurred expenses, a Court would look to see if this expense was reasonable, foreseeable and properly vouched. In the case of the HSE, it appears that a great number of people have suffered material loss. As a result of our call for information on the 17th May 2021 we received enquires from the following categories of people who suffered material loss:
- People who had appointments for treatments and scans which were cancelled
- Medical Professionals who suffered a drop in income as a result of HSE support services being offline.
- Individuals having to recreate medical records from GPs etc
There may be other categories of material loss arising also depending on how long the disruption lasts as a result of the HSE data breach. We cannot create an exhaustive list but further material losses might include:
- Affected prognoses due to treatments not administered in a timely manner, or at all,
- Identity theft
- Costs associated with the exfiltration event (dealing with “scammers” and so forth)
- Other losses incurred as a result of private information entering the public domain, e.g. Reputational Damage causing a job loss or lost business opportunity