Data incidents have recently been announced by Wood River Health in Rhode Island, Jack L Marcus in Wisconsin, and Avala and Primary Health Services Center in Louisiana.
Wood River Health, Rhode Island
Wood River Health, a provider of medical, dental, and social services to communities in southwestern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut, has recently announced a data breach that has affected 54,926 individuals. Suspicious activity was identified in an employee’s email account on or around September 6, 2024. Assisted by third-party cybersecurity experts, Wood River Health investigated the activity and confirmed that an unauthorized third party had access to the email account between August 8, 2024, and September 6, 2024, and may have viewed or acquired names and Social Security numbers.
The review of the affected account was completed on or around May 29, 2025, and notification letters were mailed to the affected individuals on or around July 28, 2025. The affected individuals have been offered 12 months of complimentary credit monitoring services, additional safeguards have been implemented to improve security, and employees have been provided with further security awareness training.
Avala, Louisiana
Avala, a Covington, LA-based physician-led health network that operates a 21-bed hospital in St. Tammany Parish, a surgery center in Metairie, and a medical imaging center in Covington, has recently announced a cybersecurity incident, discovered on May 30, 2025, that impacted its IT systems. Third-party cybersecurity experts were engaged to assist with containment and remediation and determine if patient data was exposed. No instances of identity theft or fraud have been identified; however, the investigation confirmed on July 23, 2025, that patient data had been exposed and was potentially exfiltrated from its network.
The exposed data varied from individual to individual and may have included names, addresses, birth dates, treatment information, health insurance information, and Social Security numbers. Notification letters are now being sent to the affected individuals. The data breach is not yet shown on the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal, so it is currently unclear how many individuals have been affected.
Primary Health Services Center, Louisiana
Primary Health Services Center (PHSC), a Monroe, LA-based non-profit healthcare provider that operates several clinics serving the Ouachita, Morehouse, and Lincoln Parishes, has started notifying individuals affected by a recent cybersecurity incident. The nature of the incident was not detailed in the website data breach announcement, nor was the date the incident was detected.
Third-party cybersecurity professionals were engaged to investigate the incident, and the investigation and file review are ongoing. The number of affected individuals and the types of exposed data have yet to be publicly disclosed. PHSC is currently unaware of any misuse of patient information as a result of the incident and said data security policies and procedures have been enhanced to reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future.
The security breach appears to be a ransomware attack by the Inc Ransom ransomware group, which added PHSC to its dark web data leak site on December 24, 2024. Inc Ransom uploaded the stolen data on January 15, 2025, which includes user data, employee data, and financial information.
Jack L Marcus Inc.
Jack L Marcus Inc., a Milwaukee, WI-based retailer that allows orders to be placed for incarcerated individuals under an agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, has announced a data breach affecting 712 individuals. According to the substitute breach notice, a website misconfiguration allowed limited information to be displayed that should have been hidden.
Between August 15, 2024, and May 16, 2025, the name of the treatment facility where an individual was located was displayed to individuals placing orders for that individual. The facility address was masked, but the name of the treatment facility was displayed. No other information was impermissibly disclosed. The error was identified on March 15, 2025, and was corrected the following day. Jack L Marcus has reviewed and updated its processes and technology to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The post Wood River Health Notifies 54K Patients About August 2024 Data Breach appeared first on The HIPAA Journal.
