Samantha Wildow and Josh Sweigart report:
A cyberattack is causing a system-wide technology outage at Kettering Health, forcing some medical procedures to be canceled, bringing down phone lines and the MyChart patient portal and diverting emergency crews to other facilities.
“Earlier this morning, Kettering Health experienced a system-wide technology outage that is causing challenges to many of our patient care systems across the organization,” Kettering Health said in an organizational statement. “We have procedures and plans in place for these types of situations and will continue to provide safe, high-quality care for patients currently in our facilities.”
Sources tell the Dayton Daily News the hospital system is dealing with a ransomware attack. Hackers appear to be threatening to destroy data and publicly publish sensitive data on the dark web if hospital officials don’t reach out and negotiate within 72 hours, according to information shared with the Dayton Daily News by an anonymous source.
Read more at Dayton Daily News. WENY has additional information on the attack via CNN:
“Your network was compromised, and we have secured your most vital files,” the ransom note says. The note threatens to leak data allegedly stolen from Kettering Health online unless the health network begins negotiating an extortion fee.
The ransom note leads the victim to an extortion site associated with a ransomware gang known as Interlock, which first emerged last fall. Interlock has since targeted a variety of sectors, including tech and manufacturing firms and government organizations, according to Talos, Cisco’s cyber-intelligence unit.