A cyberattack has disrupted clinical operations at major health care nonprofit Ascension, prompting the organization to take steps to minimize the impact on patient care. An Ascension spokesperson confirmed this to CNN on Wednesday.
The nonprofit operates 140 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities in 19 states and discovered unusual activity on some of its computer systems on Wednesday. This led to an investigation and notification to the appropriate authorities. The extent and duration of the disruption were not provided by Ascension as a precautionary measure, recommending that its health care clients temporarily disconnect from their network connections to Ascension while the incident is being addressed.
Recent ransomware attacks on health care providers in the US have caused disruptions in patient care and financial losses running into millions or billions of dollars. In February, a ransomware attack on a subsidiary of the health care giant UnitedHealth Group resulted in billing disruptions at pharmacies nationwide and posed a severe threat to the financial stability of some health providers. However, Ascension stated that it would notify any affected individuals if any sensitive patient data was compromised in the hacking incident. Queries about whether the incident involved ransomware were left unanswered by the Ascension spokesperson.
