From UT Health East Texas
An undated photo of UT Health Tyler, part of the UT Health East Texas network, in Tyler, Texas.
CNN
A hospital network in East Texas hasn’t been able to accept ambulances to emergency rooms since Thanksgiving Day due to a potential cybersecurity incident, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The hospital network, UT Health East Texas, is operating using established downtime procedures as it investigates a potential security incident and works to bring computers back online.
Further inquiries regarding the incident and the hospital’s response were not responded to by the hospital spokesperson.
Headquartered in Tyler, Texas, UT Health East Texas operates 10 hospitals and more than 90 clinics in the region, providing healthcare to thousands of patients annually.
UT Health East Texas is the latest in a series of hospitals that have had to turn ambulances away due to cybersecurity incidents.
The cyber incident at UT Health East Texas began on Thursday when the hospital network became aware of a network outage and moved to lock down its network, according to the hospital network’s statement to CNN.
The hospital network originally stated on Thursday that it expected computer networks to be restored in the next 24-36 hours, with uncertainty remaining around this timeline.
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The threat of ransomware and other cyberattacks over long weekend holidays is a concern for critical infrastructure operators such as hospitals and power plants.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, hundreds of health care providers across the US have been forced offline by cyberattacks, highlighting the lack of resources to address these threats.
Despite greater attention from health care associations and federal officials, cybersecurity remains a persistent issue for hospitals.
In 2023, there have been 209 publicly reported ransomware attacks on US health care organizations, indicating a rise from the previous year.
