Ascension, one of many largest personal 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, analysis and billing codes, medical document quantity, and insurance coverage firm identify. They may additionally acquire entry to non-public data, together with identify, handle, telephone quantity(s), e mail handle, date of start, race, gender, and Social Safety numbers (SSNs).
“On December 5, 2024, we realized that Ascension affected person data might 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 possible stolen from them attributable to 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 Lawyer Common that 96 residents had their medical data and SSNs uncovered within the incident.
Nonetheless, the healthcare large additionally disclosed in an April 28 submitting with the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Companies (HHS) that wasn’t revealed till right this moment that the info breach affected 437,329 people.
Ascension affords two years of free id monitoring companies 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 knowledge theft assaults that exploited a zero-day flaw in Cleo safe file switch software program.
Final yr, Ascension notified nearly 5.6 million sufferers and staff that their private, monetary, insurance coverage, and well being data had been stolen in a Could 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 system.
Following the Could 2024 assault, staff had been pressured to maintain observe of procedures and medicines on paper, as sufferers’ digital data could not be accessed. Ascension additionally needed to pause some non-emergent elective procedures, checks, and appointments and redirect emergency medical companies to unaffected healthcare models to forestall triage delays.
Ascension has over 142,000 staff, operates 142 hospitals and 40 senior care amenities acoss North America, and reported revenues of $28.3 billion in 2023.
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