Several states’ worth of medical facilities across the nation are in disarray as a result of a cyber attack that hit a US healthcare provider, which disrupted its computers.
California-based Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. was the target of the ransomware attack. which oversees healthcare facilities in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Texas, and Rhode Island on Thursday.
Future Medical Holdings, Inc. recently encountered a data security incident that has interfered with our operations,” the company said in a statement, adding, “Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts.”
It stated, “While our investigation is ongoing, we are concentrated on attending to the urgent needs of our patients as we work diligently to resume normal operations as soon as practicable.
Patients were transferred to other nearby medical facilities as a result of Thursday’s data security incident, which forced emergency rooms at hospitals in several states to close.
Ambulances were also diverted, and elective surgeries, outpatient appointments, blood drives, and other services were suspended.
While security experts tried to ascertain the scope of the issue and fix it, many primary care facilities were still closed on Friday.
Major universities and governmental institutions have been the targets of a widespread hacking campaign that has been going on in the US over the past few months. The hackers are putting pressure on federal officials who have promised to end the scourge of ransomware attacks that have affected local governments, hospitals, and schools all over the United States.
Several Federal Government organizations in the United States, including the Department of Energy, were the target of a global cyberattack campaign in June that took advantage of a flaw in the widely used program MOVEit Transfer.
Since late May, hackers have been taking advantage of a vulnerability in MOVEit, a service used by businesses and government organizations to transfer data. The software’s US-based developer, Progress Software, claims to have found a fresh vulnerability that “could be exploited by a bad actor.”
MOVEit Transfer is a well-liked tool that businesses use to share sensitive data with collaborators or clients.
