Ascension healthcare network investigates cyberattack

TEXAS - A major health care network is investigating after a cyberattack. Ascension said the breach is disrupting its clinical operations. They said they are still investigating and this is an ongoing situation.

"I really can’t conceive of a way in which you make yourself absolutely invulnerable to these attacks," VP of Strategy & Innovation at NuHarbor Security Jack Danahy said.

Danahy said it’s all about the money.

"They’re looking to attack institutions which, by virtue of their public service, are more likely to pay the ransom," Danahy said.

Ascension said on Wednesday, May 8, it detected unusual activity on technology systems which they now believe was because of a cybersecurity event.

"It looks as though this breach has caused outages in emergency care, it’s caused outages in access to patient records, it’s caused traditional appointments to be canceled and moved out," Danahy said.

Danahy said this attack on a health care network that serves communities in 19 states is huge.

"This is a loss of really primary information services. It’s almost as though doctors don’t have scalpels and don’t have oxygen," Danahy said.

He said Ascension needs to prepare for the next one because it’s likely there will be another one.

"There’s been a real increase in the speed at which these things are happening in different organizations," Danahy said.

Ascension said a third-party expert is assisting in the investigation into what information may have been affected by the situation. They said, "should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals."

The Texas Attorney General reported nearly 300 different data security breach incidents have impacted millions of Texans so far this year.