On Thursday, November 23, 2023 a ransomware cyber attack shut down emergency rooms in East Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and New Jersey, forcing patients to transport patients to other facilities. The cyber attack shut down a significant amount of computerized services in the hospitals. All of the hospitals affected were part of Ardent Health, which oversees 30 hospitals across the U.S. Ardent Health says it was targeted over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Ardent Health contacted the police about this issue and have taken action to stop further damage. They took their network offline and suspended all user access to their information technology applications. Ardent also implemented additional technology security protocols and are working to restore their technology operations as soon as possible. Ardent Health says they cannot confirm that any patient health or financial data has been compromised.
Ransomware is becoming more and more common but Ardent Health is believed to be the largest health operator hit so far. They are currently determining the impact of this event and it is too soon to say how long it will take to fix this problem.