Security News > 2021 > May > Scripps Health Cyberattack Causes Widespread Hospital Outages

Scripps Health, a hospital network based in San Diego, was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, forcing some critical-care patients to be diverted, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Scripps acknowledged the attack in a statement but didn't specify whether it was a ransomware incident.

Emergencies being sent elsewhere after a ransomware attack is not unheard-of: In September n September, employees at Universal Health Services, a Fortune-500 owner of a nationwide network of hospitals, reported widespread outages that resulted in delayed lab results, a fallback to pen and paper, and patients being diverted to other hospitals.

According to a report by the Ministry of Justice of the State North Rhine-Westphalia, a patient died who had to be taken to a more distant hospital in Wuppertal because of the attack on the clinic's servers.

"Showing just how low cybercriminals will go, the attack on a major healthcare facility like Scripps highlights the dark side of ransomware, disturbingly putting lives at risk," said Edgard Capdevielle, CEO of Nozomi Networks, via email.

The outages are widespread across the Scripps system, according to reports.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/scripps-health-cyberattack-hospital-outages/165817/