Ascension, one of many largest non-public healthcare methods in the US, has revealed that the non-public and healthcare data of over 430,000 sufferers was uncovered in a knowledge breach disclosed final month.
As Ascension revealed in breach notification letters despatched to affected people in April, their data was stolen in a knowledge theft assault that impacted a former enterprise accomplice in December.
Relying on the impacted affected person, the attackers might entry private well being data associated to inpatient visits, together with the doctor’s identify, admission and discharge dates, prognosis and billing codes, medical report quantity, and insurance coverage firm identify. They may additionally acquire entry to private data, together with identify, handle, cellphone quantity(s), electronic mail handle, date of beginning, race, gender, and Social Safety numbers (SSNs).
“On December 5, 2024, we realized that Ascension affected person data could have been concerned in a possible safety incident. We instantly initiated an investigation to find out whether or not and the way a safety incident occurred,” Ascension mentioned.
“Our investigation decided on January 21, 2025, that Ascension inadvertently disclosed data to a former enterprise accomplice, and a few of this data was seemingly stolen from them because of a vulnerability in third-party software program utilized by the previous enterprise accomplice.”
Whereas Ascension did not reveal the entire variety of affected people on the time, an April 29 submitting mentioned that the incident impacted 114,692 people in Texas, and the corporate additionally instructed Massachusetts’ Workplace of the Legal professional Common that 96 residents had their medical information and SSNs uncovered within the incident.
Nevertheless, the healthcare large additionally disclosed in an April 28 submitting with the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Providers (HHS) that wasn’t revealed till right now that the information breach affected 437,329 people.
Ascension presents two years of free id monitoring providers to these impacted by this incident, together with credit score monitoring, fraud session, and id theft restoration.
Though Ascension did not share any particulars relating to the breach affecting its former enterprise accomplice, the timeline of the breach implies that the assault was a part of widespread Clop ransomware information theft assaults that exploited a zero-day flaw in Cleo safe file switch software program.
Final yr, Ascension notified virtually 5.6 million sufferers and workers that their private, monetary, insurance coverage, and well being data had been stolen in a Might 2024 Black Basta ransomware assault.
After the incident, the healthcare group revealed that the ransomware breach resulted from an worker downloading a malicious file onto an organization machine.
Following the Might 2024 assault, workers had been pressured to maintain monitor of procedures and medicines on paper, as sufferers’ digital information could not be accessed. Ascension additionally needed to pause some non-emergent elective procedures, checks, and appointments and redirect emergency medical providers to unaffected healthcare models to stop triage delays.
Ascension has over 142,000 workers, operates 142 hospitals and 40 senior care services acoss North America, and reported revenues of $28.3 billion in 2023.
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