Ascension Health Care Nonprofit Suffers Cyberattack, Halts Clinical Operations and Advises Clients to Disconnect

A cyberattack has caused disruptions in clinical operations at major health care nonprofit Ascension, which includes 140 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities across 19 states. In response to the incident, Ascension is taking steps to minimize the impact on patient care. The organization detected unusual activity on some of its computer systems and initiated an investigation, notifying authorities of the potential breach.

Health care clients of Ascension are being advised to temporarily cut off network connections to the organization while the incident is being addressed. If any sensitive patient data was compromised in the hack, Ascension will notify those affected. However, it is not yet confirmed whether the incident involved ransomware or not.

In recent years, health care providers in the US have suffered numerous ransomware attacks, resulting in disruptions to patient care and costing millions of dollars. Just this past February, a ransomware attack on a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group caused billing disruptions at pharmacies across the country and threatened to put some health providers out of business. Despite requests for information regarding the nature of the cyberattack, an Ascension spokesperson did not respond.