Ascension Hospitals in Michigan Victims of Cyber Attack

Patients and hospital staff are having a very hard time during a current cyber attack.

One of my co-workers came into work frustrated this morning after her doctor's appointment didn't go as planned.  At this Kalamazoo area Ascension Borgess location they were having issues finding her in the system to check her in.  It turns out, this is not an isolated incident according to an Ascension employee who anonymously spoke with the Free Press,

There was a security concern, so they shut down the system.  It's affecting everything.

Computer network problems were first reported early Wednesday morning.  Then on Thursday morning Ascension posted a statement regarding the hack,

On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cyber security event.  Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues.

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At this time, we do not know if clients' sensitive information has been compromised. However, we do know that many hospitals, doctor's offices, and senior living facilities are very limited in what they can do digitally as this cyber attack is under investigation.  This is likely a ransomware attack which is becoming far too common according to CNN,

Health care providers across the US have suffered numerous ransomware attacks in recent years, some of which have disrupted patient care and cost health providers millions, if not billions, of dollars.

This cyber attack isn't just affecting all of the Ascension locations.  This is bringing work to a near halt in 19 states as many locations are diverting patients to other hospitals.  We will keep you up to date as soon as we get more information.