By Christian Angel
One of the largest healthcare providers in the United States suffered a
ransomware attack early Sunday morning that has taken down its digital
networks at locations around the United States.
Some patients have been turned away and emergencies have been
redirected to other hospitals after some health care facilities were unable to carry out lab work.
UHS published a statement on Monday, saying its IT network “is currently
offline, due to an IT security issue.”
The ransomware attack is speculated to be brought by the 'Ryuk'
ransomware. This was orchestrated by a Russian cybercrime group called
Wizard Spider, according to Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm. The group
aims to target large companies and corporations such as the US' Universal
Health Services.
According to a Reddit thread, yesterday: “I work at a UHS facility in Tucson and our shit is definitely down. They won’t even let us turn the computers on for going on over 24 hours. We’re a psych hospital so no one is dying from not getting their lab results back in time, but if the same thing happening to us is going on at any of UHS’s medical facilities then I can well imagine people dying.” Some ransomware operators said earlier this year that they would not attack health organizations and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.