Cyberattack closes emergency rooms in three states

Ardent Health says it was the target of a cyberattack over Thanksgiving, in an incident that shut down the hospital operator’s emergency rooms in three states.

The hospital operator, which oversees 30 hospitals in the U.S., said the attack was detected on the morning of Nov. 23 and was identified as a ransomware attack impacting several of its computerized services at sites in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.

Ardent said it “cannot confirm the extent of any patient health or financial data that has been compromised,” but that it responded by taking its network offline and suspending user access.

“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,” the company said in the release.

An investigation to determine the cause and impact of the attack is currently underway, with Ardent saying it is “too soon” to know what data was impacted and how long the investigation may take.

To read the complete article, visit IoT World Today.