Breach filing
ArchivedAdvocate Aurora Health: 68,707 individuals, Jul 2021.
Advocate Aurora Health reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 16 July 2021. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Wisconsin and lists 68,707 individuals affected, which makes it the 15th largest of the 126 Wisconsin filings on the register and the 108th largest of the 715 filings submitted nationally in 2021. Among the 17 Wisconsin filings made in 2021 it ranks 2nd.
Individuals affected
68,707
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$11.0M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in WI
15th
of 126 Wisconsin filings
Rank in 2021
108th
of 715 filings nationally
Section F.1 / The filing
As posted by HHS OCR
Every value below is the portal's own field for this filing, plus its rank within the register.
- Covered entity type
- Healthcare Provider
- Individuals affected
- 68,707
- Breach submission date
- 16 July 2021
- Submission year
- 2021
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- Wisconsin (WI)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Wisconsin by size
- 15th of 126
- Rank in 2021 nationally
- 108th of 715
- Wisconsin median filing
- 3,657 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- WI-20210716-advocate-aurora-health
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Wisconsin and in 2021
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a network server. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 83 of the 126 Wisconsin filings (66%) and on 76% of all filings submitted in 2021. Network Server appears on 40% of Wisconsin filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 31% of Wisconsin filings. At 68,707 individuals the breach is 19 times the Wisconsin median filing of 3,657 and 17 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It sits in the 10,000 to 99,999 band, which holds 1,938 filings.
As of 28 August 2026 the case is listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive. OCR's closing summary of the case is reproduced in full below.
Wisconsin's breach notification statute (Wis. Stat. 134.98) requires notice to affected residents within 45 days after learning of the unauthorized acquisition. Its attorney general threshold: no AG notification requirement. The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule ran alongside it: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery, which is the clock that put this filing on the portal.
Multiplying 68,707 individuals by IBM's $160 customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025, the figure the site's calculator uses) gives a modelled $11.0M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $13.2M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Advocate Aurora Health. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 2.0 times the sector average.
Section F.3 / OCR closing summary
The portal's archived description, in full
Written by the Office for Civil Rights when the case was closed and reproduced verbatim from the HHS export.
The covered entity (CE), Advocate Aurora Health, reported that its business associate (BA) experienced a ransomware attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 68,707 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, drivers' license numbers, diagnoses/conditions, lab results, medications prescribed, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided a complimentary telephone number for questions or concerns. The CE also provided credit monitoring services. In response to the breach, the BA implemented additional technical safeguards to better protect sensitive data.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
68,707 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$11.0M
68,707 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$13.2M
68,707 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Advocate Aurora Health to HHS, multiplied by IBM's customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025 Figure 6 and the 2026 edition). No cost has been disclosed by the entity for this filing; the figure is a planning estimate, not a fact about the breach. IBM's per-record figures come from mid-volume breaches and IBM cautions against applying them to breaches involving millions of records; the site's per-record page explains where the multiplication holds and where it breaks down.
Context: IBM's average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M in the 2026 report ($7.42M in 2025); the global average across all sectors was $4.44M in 2025.
Cost per record: method and limits / Healthcare breach cost, IBM 2026
Section F.6 / Notification clock
Wisconsin statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Wisconsin: Wis. Stat. 134.98
- Notice to individuals
- Within 45 days after learning of the unauthorized acquisition
- Attorney general threshold
- No AG notification requirement
- Private right of action
- No: No PROA under the statute; failure to notify may support separate negligence claims
- Penalty
- Civil forfeitures up to $10,000 per violation, enforced by the AG and DATCP
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule runs alongside the state statute: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery.
Section F.7 / Peer filings
Wisconsin filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Wisconsin filings in 2021, topped up from other years where 2021 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forefront Dermatology, S.C. | Healthcare Provider | 2,413,553 | 8 Jul 2021 | |||
| Hand to Shoulder Specialists of Wisconsin Ltd. | Healthcare Provider | 39,317 | 28 Apr 2021 | |||
| Pediatric Associates of Milwaukee | Healthcare Provider | 8,160 | 22 Apr 2021 |
Index / Companion schedules
13 HHS breach register
→Hub: every filing, by state, year and entity.
04 Biggest breaches
→Mega-breaches with primary-source cost figures.
Industry / Healthcare
→IBM 2026: $6.64M average, 13 years at #1.
Regulation / HIPAA penalties
→OCR enforcement tiers and the 60-day rule.
11 50-state laws
→Deadline, AG threshold and penalties per state.
Cost / Per record
→Where the per-record model is reliable.
Provenance
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal (breaches affecting 500 or more individuals), retrieved 2026-08-28. Public domain. Individuals affected and dates as reported by the covered entity.
Portal: ocrportal.hhs.gov breach report. Statutory basis: HITECH Act section 13402(e)(4): the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals are reported to OCR annually and are not posted, so they are not on this register. Status wording follows the portal's two tabs ("Cases Currently Under Investigation" and "Archive") as of 28 August 2026; a filing moves to the archive when OCR closes the case. Modelled costs on this site are a method applied to the reported count, using IBM Cost of a Data Breach per-record figures, and are never a cost disclosed by the entity. This row: hhs-breach-archive__2026-08-28.csv, export row 3052.
Corrections: if you represent a listed entity and the portal row has been amended, email [email protected] with the portal entry and we will re-pull the export.