Security News > 2022 > September > LabMD gets another shot at defamation claim against 'extortionate' infosec biz

LabMD, the embattled and now defunct cancer-testing company, will get another chance at suing security firm Tiversa for defamation following an appeals court ruling.

The testing laboratory has long alleged that: Tiversa illegally obtained a 1,178-page computer file containing confidential data on more than 9,000 LabMD patients back in 2008; lied about the file being publicly available on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network and that it was downloaded by miscreants; and tried to use this alleged privacy fiasco to bully the medical company into paying for Tiversa's incident response services to the tune of $475 an hour.

In response, the cybersecurity shop retaliated against LabMD, the medical company claimed.

The district court judge had, notably, blocked expert testimony supporting LabMD's claims that Tiversa illegally accessed its file containing patient data, on the basis it would't be needed.

This week, 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals judges unanimously [PDF] sent the defamation claims back to the district court, saying the lower court was wrong to issue a summary judgment against LabMD primarily because the "Prohibition on expert testimony was unwarranted."

The appeals court also ruled the sanctions and contempt finding weren't necessary despite LabMD's lawyer's odd line of questioning.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/09/01/labmd_tiversa_defamation_lawsuit/