Michigan Rural Health System Notifies 140,000 Patients About Hacking Incident
Aspire Rural Health in Michigan is notifying almost 140,000 patients about unauthorized access to its network and the theft of their personal and healthcare data. Aspire Rural Health consists of more than 70 providers and serves patients in rural areas in Huron County, Sanilac County, Tuscola County, and Lapeer County. Aspire detected the intrusion on or around January 6, 2025, and third-party cybersecurity experts were engaged to investigate the incident and determine the nature and scope of the unauthorized activity. The forensic investigation confirmed that an unauthorized third party had access to its network for more than two months from November 4, 2024, to January 6, 2025.
According to the substitute data breach notice on the Aspire website, files containing patients’ protected health information were accessed and/or acquired in the incident. Following a manual review of the affected files, Aspire confirmed that a wide range of data types were compromised in the incident.
Current and former patients had their first and last names stolen, in combination with one or more of the following: date of birth, Social Security number, financial account number and routing number, diagnosis information, medical treatment information, prescription information, health insurance information, payment card number/PIN/expiry date, lab results, provider information, driver’s license number, username/password, biometric identifiers, patient identification number, medical record number, and passport number.
Aspire is unaware of any misuse of the affected data; however, as a precaution, complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services have been offered to individuals whose Social Security numbers were involved. The data breach is not yet listed on the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal; however, the Maine Attorney General has been informed that 138,386 individuals have been affected, including 4 Maine residents. While not described as a ransomware attack, the BianLian threat group claimed responsibility for the attack and added Aspire to its dark web data leak site.
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