AUSTIN (KXAN) – On Wednesday, Ascension, a healthcare company in Central Texas, announced that they detected unusual activity on network systems, which they believed to be a "cyber security event."
In a statement, Ascension said: "Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption."
Michael Larssen's wife is a patient at Ascension's main campus in Austin, he said he was worried about the impacts.
"Services aren't being done the way they should and when you are in a hospital time is life, seconds matter and minutes matter," said Larssen. "It is chaotic in that they are trying to figure out how to get everyone on the same page through paper means."
As of Thursday, the hospital system was still trying to address the issues.
"You are sitting here watching something go on and there is not really much you can do except let it unfold and they have to call so and so and get this document down and they follow the protocol, but the protocol is much slower," said Larssen.
Ascension said it was also working to find out what information if any has been affected.
"Hospitals are vulnerable targets just because there is sensitive information as well as private information," said Heena Rathore, a cyber security expert from Texas State University.
Changing passwords and monitoring financial statements can help if you feel like you've been targeted, but cybersecurity attacks are only getting more complex.
"It is growing and it is getting worse, but technology is also improving so it is going hand-in-hand," said Rathore.
As for Larssen, he said the nurses are working hard to deal with the issues, despite the challenges, but he feels like Ascension needs to be more transparent with what is going on.
"I totally wish they had been forthright about all the things because I am in the dark now about what it could affect."
On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cybersecurity event. 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.
Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.
We have engaged Mandiant, a third party expert, to assist in the investigation and remediation process, and we have notified the appropriate authorities. Together, we are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation. Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines.
We are reaching out to our business partners to ensure they are aware of the situation so they can take appropriate steps to safeguard their systems. We encourage all business partners to coordinate with the Ascension Technology partners to address any specific questions.
This is an ongoing situation and we will provide updates as we learn more.
Cybersecurity event update from Ascension
