Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) has taken its IT systems offline and postponed non-emergency procedures after a cyberattack on Thursday night. TMH is a private, not-for-profit healthcare system that serves a 21-county region in North Florida and South Georgia through hospitals, specialty care centers, and 38 affiliated physician practices. Although all of its networks were taken offline, TMH stated that the attack only affected some of them. The IT Department identified the security issue quickly and proactively shut down the IT systems to limit the impact. The hospital is currently reviewing each of its IT systems, prioritizing them, and bringing them back online one-by-one. TMH has not yet provided a timeline for how long this will take, but they will continue to provide updates. Patients whose appointments were affected due to the breach will be contacted by their providers or care facilities. Patients who require emergency medical services will be diverted to other hospitals, as TMH will only accept Level 1 traumas from its immediate service area. TMH has reported the incident to law enforcement and is now working with them as part of an ongoing investigation. It is believed that the attack was caused by ransomware, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has warned of ransomware operations targeting healthcare organizations across the U.S. This is the second suspected ransomware incident involving U.S. hospitals in 2021. Last year, there were 25 attacks against health systems operating 290 hospitals. Atlantic General Hospital in Maryland was also hit by a ransomware attack over the weekend.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Fri, 03 Feb 2023 17:37:02 +0000