Ransomware Attack Forces Kettering Health to Cancel Procedures

Ohio healthcare network Kettering Health on Tuesday announced that patient procedures were canceled as it was dealing with a system-wide outage caused by a cyberattack.

The incident, the non-profit organization says, impacted its ability to access certain patient care systems across its entire network.

“We have procedures and plans in place for these types of situations and will continue to provide safe, high-quality care for patients currently in our facilities,” Kettering Health said in a notice on Tuesday morning.

While emergency rooms and clinics remained open, the outage forced the healthcare provider to cancel elective inpatient and outpatient procedures on Tuesday. The organization’s call center was also affected.

In an update on Tuesday afternoon, Kettering Health warned patients of scam calls impersonating its staff to request payments for medical expenses, saying that it was unclear whether the calls were linked to the outage.

“While it is customary for Kettering Health to contact patients by phone to discuss payment options for medical bills, out of an abundance of caution, we will not be making calls to ask for or receive payment over the phone until further notice,” it said.

The healthcare provider did not say what type of cyberattack it fell victim to, but CNN reports that the Interlock ransomware gang was likely responsible for the incident. The group is threatening to leak data stolen from the organization unless a ransom is paid.

SecurityWeek has emailed Kettering Health for additional information on the attack and will update this article if a reply arrives.

Kettering Health operates 14 medical centers and 120 other facilities, including hospitals, clinics, stand-alone emergency departments, and the Kettering College. It has over 15,000 employees and more than 1,800 physicians.

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