SAN FRANCISCO - Several federal agencies are coordinating resources to assist nonprofit healthcare system Ascension following a cyberattack that has limited its operations, a senior White House official said Thursday.
The Catholic nonprofit, which operates in 19 states, published a notice on Wednesday evening saying it was dealing with a cyberattack that caused widespread outages across its technology network.
The organization said on Thursday that several hospitals are diverting ambulances due to the technology outages.
Phones and computers at hospitals across the country are now down, causing missed appointments and disruptions to pharmaceutical operations.
Doctors said the abrupt shift to paper systems has interrupted care and forced them to constantly check on patients to assure they were getting the drugs and medication they need.
At the RSA Conference on Thursday, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, confirmed that it was a ransomware attack and said this was an example of the need for more to be done to protect critical infrastructure.
In the Thursday update, Ascension warned that they still do not have a timeline for when systems will be restored.
The attack forced several hospitals to cancel some non-emergency elective procedures, tests and appointments while they work to bring systems back online.
The organization runs hundreds of hospitals and 40 senior living facilities.
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Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014.
Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia.
He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Thu, 09 May 2024 23:40:06 +0000