The parent company of Eastern Connecticut Health Network and Waterbury HEALTH, Prospect Medical Holdings, announced that all its facilities were facing IT complications.
The FBI is investigating the ECHN ransomware attack and the Waterbury HEALTH cyber attack, with the former leading the staff to divert its emergency room (ER) patients.
Following the ECHN ransomware attack, the ERs at both Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital were non-functional, resulting in the need for manual record maintenance of patients.
The hackers‘ ransom demands for Prospect Medical Holdings facilities remain unclear.
The Cyber Express has reached out to the parent company via email for comments, and this report will be updated accordingly upon receiving a response.
Cyber Attacks: Prospect Medical Holdings and ECHN
Prospect Medical Holdings published a notice stating that all its facilities were experiencing IT complications after the PMH cyber attack.
It mentioned that the Center for Wound Healing, Urgent Care Center, and Women’s Center for Wellness would remain closed. The other services and locations that will be closed were –
- Elective surgeries
- Evergreen Imaging Center
- Gastroenterology appointments & procedures
- Podiatry Clinic
- Tolland Imaging Center
Outpatient Laboratories would also remain closed due to the ECHN ransomware attack.
Jillian Menzel, the Chief Operating Officer of ECHN told News 8 that it was a ransomware attack. “We are unsure at this time of the extent of that attack,” Jillian added.
Waterbury HEALTH stated that all its inpatient and outpatient operations were affected by the cyber attack on its systems.
“Our compute systems are down with the outage affecting all Waterbuy HEALTH inpatient and outpatient operations,” the healthcare’s Facebook page confirmed addressing the Waterbury HEALTH ransomware attack.
Patient care interrupted after the ECHN ransomware attack
Frederick Scholl, Director of the cybersecurity program at Quinnipiac University spoke with News 8 to express concerns related to the ECHN cyber attack.
Addressing the critical nature of the cyber attack and the modus operandi of cybercriminals, Frederick said, “Obviously very time-sensitive. People are going into emergency rooms.”
“They are having procedures and so hackers tend to take advantage of that in terms of extortion demands and otherwise, that they can try to make money on what they are doing,” Scholl concluded.
No hacker or ransomware group has claimed the PMH cyber attacks so far.
The emergency departments at Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General hospital had to divert ambulance services due to the PMH cyber attack. However, patients may walk in to seek help regarding emergency care.
PMH own 16 hospitals and over 165 outpatient facilities and clinics in Southern California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.
The two Connecticut health networks impacted by the PMH ransomware attack have left some patients astray looking for help. Reacting to this, patients and others spoke to News 8 about how it impacted them.
While one person said that it was concerning when you are at the hospital and that happens, a patient who came for treatment reacted by saying, “Nothing today! Can’t see anybody. No prescriptions.”
To maintain cyber hygiene, going forward it is essential to continuously be diligent and aware of the safety of one’s home computers, medical records, and bank records, Scholl concluded.