Australia's Medibank served with third class-action suit over cyber breach

(Reuters) -Australia's Medibank Private Ltd said on Friday it was served with another class-action suit related to the cyber hack incident last year in which personal data of current and former customers was leaked on the dark web.

The third class-action suit related to the incident was filed in the country's federal court by law firm Slater & Gordon on behalf of affected current and former Medibank customers, and healthcare service providers.

Among the many breaches reported by Australian companies since late last year, Medibank had disclosed that a hacker stole personal information of 9.7 million current and former customers and released the data on the dark web.

In a statement on its website, Slater & Gordon alleged that the health insurer failed to protect, or take reasonable steps to protect the personal information of its customers, thereby breaching consumer law and privacy principles.

In recent months, similar class action suits against the company have been filed by law firms Baker & McKenzie and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Medibank, which is also under investigation from the country's privacy regulator on how it handles personal information, said it would defend the proceedings.

(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)