Suspected cybersecurity attack at Ascension Health impacting Chicago hospitals

CHICAGO — A suspected cybersecurity attack continues to impact a healthcare system in the Chicago area.

Ascension Health operates 140 hospitals nationwide. Ascension Saint Joseph Chicago Hospital is one of more than a dozen healthcare centers in the area that has been hit by a suspected cyberattack, disrupting clinical operations.

Ascension is calling the disruption a cybersecurity event after unusual activity was first detected on Wednesday. The healthcare system says its investigation began immediately and has hired a third-party group to help with remediation.

Hospitals in other states like Kansas and Florida have reported significant impacts. Local media outlets have reported that ambulances are diverting patients to other hospitals.

The severity of the impact on Chicago’s Ascension hospitals is unclear as of Thursday evening.

The cyberattack comes just a few months after Lurie Children’s Hospital took its systems offline for six weeks after a suspected ransomware attack.

WGN News spoke to a cybersecurity expert who says the issue concerning Ascension Health bears the hallmarks of a ransomware attack. Healthcare systems are increasingly the targets of hackers because they have valuable data and provide critical care, so they have to get back up and running quickly, says Cyrus Walker, the CEO of Data Defenders, LLC.

“It makes them a rich and viable target for malicious actors for the financial gain that can come from the result of a successful attack,” Walker said. “It’s not, ‘If it’s going to happen, it’s when it happens, what is your capability to respond to it?’”

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.”