Chicago Hospital Still Recovering After Cyber Attack

Over a month after a cyberattack knocked Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago’s networks down, doctors and nurses regained access to patients’ electronic medical information.

Reports revealed that patients couldn’t access their medical information and connect with their clinicians via MyChart, even though the hospital’s EMR software is back up and running. The hospital also confirmed that its phone system is operational.

Over a month after a cyberattack knocked Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago’s networks down, doctors and nurses may regain access to patients’ electronic medical information.

Upon discovering the breach on January 31, officials first reported that the hospital had temporarily taken down its email, telephone, and medical data systems and that a known criminal threat actor had carried out the assault.

Although hospital officials have not acknowledged the reason, the attack on Lurie Children’s Hospital bore all the signs of a ransomware assault. Ransomware groups sometimes use this tactic to extort money from unsuspecting victims by encrypting their data, documents, or other important material and then demanding payment to decrypt it. Attackers aware of hospitals’ dependence on internet technology find them an attractive target.

According to reports, the FBI is investigating. But Cybersecurity experts say the government does little to prevent cybercrime against hospitals.

As of the most recent information, no one has been taken into custody in relation to the hack at Lurie Children’s Hospital. The cost that the cyberattack at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital is expected to bear is not yet known.

Last June, a small Illinois hospital declared its permanent closure due to financial difficulties caused by a cyberattack.

Reports show that a healthcare organization in the US that runs 30 hospitals and several hundred clinics was hit by ransomware in November 2023, causing physicians to reroute patients away from emergency departments and put off elective surgery until later.

After breaching a health network in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, last year, hackers even went to the extreme of releasing images and private data of breast cancer patients undergoing treatment there.