Nearly 30,000 affected in Texas Hearing Institute data security incident

Close to 30,000 individuals had their sensitive personal information exposed following a major data security breach at the Texas Hearing Institute earlier this year.

 

Based in Houston, Texas, Center for Hearing and Speech, doing business as Texas Hearing Institute is a nonprofit organisation that provides hearing evaluations, speech and language therapy, and family support to help children with hearing loss develop listening and communication skills, enabling them to thrive in school and everyday life.

 

In a data security incident notice filed with the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General, THI said that on March 20, it identified unauthorised access within its internal network. The healthcare provider immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

It also took steps to secure the affected systems and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the same.

 

“The forensic investigation concluded on or about April 22, 2026, and determined that there was unauthorised access to certain personal information within its network environment,” THI said.

 

The compromised data included  names, and other personal identifiers including Social Security numbers. In a filing with the Texas state regulators THI said it has identified at least 29,498 individuals affected by the incident.

 

“Since discovery of the incident, we have moved quickly to respond and secure the accounts. We are also implementing additional technical safeguards, enhanced security measures, and updated procedures to mitigate against the risk of future issues,” THI added.

 

The healthcare provider has advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and the state attorney general. 

 

It has also offered two years of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through Cyberscout to all affected individuals.

 

The Interlock ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on THI and listed the healthcare provider as a victim on its data leak site. The group claimed that it had stolen approximately 540 GB of data, comprising 495,441 files across 57,518 folders.  According to its claims, the data includes personal information of clients and employees, confidential organisational records, internal project documents, incident reports, and other sensitive information. The group further threatened to publish the stolen data unless its ransom demands were met.