Ascension Health announced Thursday that it was hit by a cyberattack, just months after data was stolen from a third of the country in a separate breach.
In a statement ThursdayAscension said it detected unusual activity on “select technology network systems” on Wednesday, May 8, which is now believed to be a cybersecurity threat.
Ascension Health is one of the largest hospital networks in the country and the largest Catholic hospital network.
The organization will continue to investigate the situation, but teams responded immediately to activate “remediation efforts.”
Access to some systems has been disrupted, the company said.
“Our care teams are trained for this type of disruption and have initiated procedures to ensure that the delivery of patient care continues to be safe and with as little impact as possible,” the statement said.
The company said there has been a disruption to clinical operations and is evaluating the impact and duration of the disruption.
The Catholic hospital chain hired Mandiant, a third-party cybersecurity expert, to assist in the investigation, Ascension said.
“Together, we are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation,” the company said.
If confidential information is leaked, individuals will be notified with “all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines.”
Ascension said this is an ongoing situation and the company will provide updates as more information becomes available.
The cyberattack follows one in February, when a threat was detected at UnitedHealth’s technology unit, Change Healthcare.
Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that manages the payment systems for most U.S. hospitals, was hit by the attack, leaving patients paying out of pocket for medications and healthcare services due to the effects.
This attack affected a “substantial proportion of people in America” and the company paid a ransom in an effort to protect patient information. In mid-March, the company said it was testing software to recover from the attack, but there was no set date for full recovery.
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