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Indiana Health System Notifies 263,000 of Oracle Hack

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Union Health System Among Many Cerner Legacy Data Clients Affected by Breach

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee (HealthInfoSec) •
May 8, 2025    

Indiana Health System Notifies 263,000 of Oracle Hack
Union Health, which operates two hospitals and a medical group, is notifying nearly 263,000 of a hacking incident involving data being migrated from Cerner servers to Oracle Cloud.

An Indiana integrated health system is among the first healthcare organizations notifying federal regulators and hundreds of thousands of affected individuals of a January hacking incident that compromised legacy patient data hosted by Cerner servers that were set to migrate to Oracle’s cloud environment.

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Terre Haute, Ind.-based Union Health System, which operates two hospitals and a medical group, reported the breach to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 21 as affecting nearly 263,000 individuals.

Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022. The Cerner data breach is one of two hacks involving Oracle so far this year (see: Oracle Health Responding to Hack on Legacy Cerner EHR Data).

The other breach reportedly affected an undisclosed number of Oracle cloud infrastructure customers and involved hackers stealing their “usernames, passkeys and encrypted passwords” according to media reports (see: Cybersecurty Experts Slam Oracle’s Handling of Big Breach).

Experts say Oracle has been less than forthcoming about the hacks. In fact, a breach notice posted on Union Health System’s website on April 21 mentioning the involvement of the Oracle Cerner incident appears to have been taken down, and was no long visible on Thursday.

Nonetheless, a snapshot of Union Health’s breach notice and a copy of the entity’s breach notification letter to affected individuals are contained in court documents involving several proposed federal class action lawsuits filed in recent days against Union Health and Cerner/Oracle as co-defendants in the breach.

Among other claims, the lawsuits allege negligence by Union Health and Oracle in failing to protect individuals’ sensitive information, putting them at risk for identity theft and fraud crimes.

Union Health did not immediately respond to Information Security Media Group’s requests for additional details about the hacking incident and for comment on the lawsuits.

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Oracle, in respond to ISMG’s request for comment, provided ISMG a copy of an April 4 letter the company sent to customers.*

“Oracle would like to state unequivocally that the Oracle Cloud – also known as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI – has not experienced a security breach. No OCI customer environment has been penetrated,” the letter said. “No OCI customer data has been viewed or stolen. No OCI service has been interrupted or compromised in any way. A hacker did access and publish user names from two obsolete servers that were never a part of OCI. The hacker did not expose usable passwords because the passwords on those two servers were either encrypted and/or hashed. Therefore the hacker was not able to access any customer environments or customer data.”

Oracle did not immediately respond to ISMG’s request for additional details about the incident affecting Union Health and other healthcare clients.

Union Health Breach Details

Union Health, in the breach notice contained in court documents, said that an “unknown party” contacted Union Health claiming to have information pertaining to the healthcare entity. Union Health on Feb. 24 verified the claims, and then identified the information “as likely relating to data migration services performed by Oracle Health/Cerner. Union Health said it reached out to Oracle Health “for confirmation” and also notified law enforcement.

“On March 15, Oracle Health/Cerner informed Union Health that it did have a cybersecurity event involving unauthorized access to data hosted in Oracle Health/Cerner’s data migration environment,” Union Health said.

“Oracle Health/Cerner further informed us that on Feb. 20, they first become aware of the incident and that their investigation identified the unauthorized party’s initial access as taking place sometime after Jan. 22,” Union Health said, adding that Oracle Health/Cerner provided a list of the entity’s affected patients on March 22.

Union Health said the incident did not involve the medical care entity’s own network, its “live” electronic health records, or any other IT systems owned, operated or administered by Union Health.

Oracle Health/Cerner told Union Health the entity’s affected files contained patient information that varied among individuals but included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, date of birth, treating physicians, date of service, medications, insurance information, treatment and diagnosis information.

Union Health is offering affected individuals complimentary identity and credit monitoring.

Oracle/Cerner reportedly told affected healthcare clients that the tech vendor will not send breach notifications to affected individuals on behalf of affected clients, but it will pay for credit monitoring and the services of a mailing vendor.

One of the lawsuits filed against Union Health and Oracle alleges that “impacted hospitals are now being extorted by a threat actor named ‘Andrew,’ who has not claimed affiliation with extortion or ransomware groups” and that the threat actor “is demanding millions of dollars in cryptocurrency not to leak or sell the stolen data.”

Updated May 3, 2025 at 9:37 UTC to include Oracle’s letter to customers as provided by the company.





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    References:

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