Thanksgiving Ransomware Attack Hits Healthcare Company

Hospitals in several states including Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas have been forced to divert patients and shut down services after their parent company, Nashville-based Ardent Health Services, suffered a ransomware attack, according to NBC News.

Spokespersons from Hillcrest HealthCare System in Oklahoma, Lovelace Health System in New Mexico, and UT Health in Texas said their emergency rooms were particularly affected.

Ardent has shut down its computerized clinical programs and halted the use of Epic Systems, a program that tracks patients’ health care records.

The attack followed routine hacker-gang strategy. They struck on a major holiday, Thanksgiving, when fewer cybersecurity employees are likely to be on the job, and targeted their most common victim, a big healthcare company. Ardent owns 37 healthcare facilities across the U.S.

In a press release Ardent said: “In an abundance of caution, our facilities are rescheduling some non-emergent, elective procedures and diverting some emergency room patients to other area hospitals until systems are back online.”

[monsterinsights_popular_posts_inline]

The Record reports that Ardent does not know how long it will take to restore its electronic medical records system. According to CNN, hospitals in Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and New Jersey have reported problems.

In August, it took weeks for hospitals run by Prospect Medical Holdings to recover from a ransomware attack that disrupted operations in four states. There were 19 ransomware attacks on healthcare facilities in October alone.

Ardent is on record as having reported the incident to law enforcement and retaining “third-party forensic and threat intelligence advisers.”

It also says it has implemented information technology security protocols and is working with cybersecurity experts to restore its information technology operations and capabilities as quickly as possible. “At this time,” says Ardent, “we cannot confirm the extent of any patient health or financial data that has been compromised.”