Hospitals across the nation were disrupted Thursday after mega-health system Ascencion confirmed it was hit by a cyberattack amid heightened concerns over cybersecurity in health care and an alarming surge in breaches.
Health care workers in several states including Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida reported interruptions to patient care Thursday as Ascencion, one of the largest private healthcare systems in the U.S., grappled with the attack. The St. Louis-based health system with 140 hospitals across the United States said it first detected the attack Wednesday and clinical operations continued to be impacted, pushing hospitals to sever connections to its online system.
“On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cyber security event,” Ascension said in a statement Thursday. “At this time we continue to investigate the situation. We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues.”
The Ascencion breach comes amid renewed scrutiny on cybersecurity in health care as attacks become increasingly common, often affecting protected health information along with other data, such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses. UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty was called to testify before Congress last week after a ransomware attack in February threatened patient care…
