Cyberattack Hobbles Universal Health Service's Hospitals Across US

Business Standard Cyberattack hobbles Universal Health Service's hospitals across US

Computer systems across a major hospital chain with facilities across the nation were down on Monday due to what the company termed an unspecified technology security issue"

Computer systems across a major hospital chain with facilities across the nation were down on Monday due to what the company termed an unspecified technology security issue".

Doctors and nurses had to rely on paper.

Universal Health Services Inc, which operates more than 250 hospitals and other clinical facilities in the US, said in a short statement posted to its website on Monday that its network was offline and doctors and nurses were resorting to back-up processes including paper records.

The Fortune 500 company, with 90,000 employees, said patient care continues to be delivered safely and effectively and no patient or employee data appeared to have been accessed, copied or misused".

The company also has hospitals in the United Kingdom, but its operations in that country were not affected, a spokeswoman said on Monday night.

UHS provided no details about the incident, but people posting to an online Reddit forum who identified themselves as employees said the chain's network was hit by ransomware overnight Sunday.

The posts echoed the alarm of a clinician at a UHS facility in Washington, DC, who described to The Associated Press a mad scramble, including anxiety over determining which patients might be infected with the virus that causes COVID19.

John Riggi, senior cybersecurity adviser to the American Hospital Association, called it a suspected ransomware attack", adding that criminals have been increasingly targeting the networks of health care institutions during the coronavirus pandemic.