Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Florida, has taken IT systems offline after cyberattack

The Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) hospital in Florida was forced to take offline its systems after a cyberattack.

The Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) hospital has taken its IT systems offline and suspended non-emergency procedures after a cyberattack. The attack took place on Thursday, the cyberattack hit some of the systems at the hospital.

The Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare hospital reported the incident to law enforcement and launched an investigation into the security breach.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare suspended emergency medical services (EMS), and it announced that patients will be diverted to other hospitals.

TMH announced that will only accept Level 1 traumas from its immediate service area.

“We are safely caring for all patients currently in our hospital, and we are not moving patients to other facilities. However, we have rescheduled non-emergency patient appointments. Patients will be contacted directly by their provider and/or care facility if their appointment is affected.” reads the notice published by TMH. “We are also diverting some EMS patients and will only be accepting Level 1 traumas from our immediate service area. All non-emergency surgical and outpatient procedures have been canceled and rescheduled.” 

In an update provided by the hospital, TMH states that all non-emergency/elective procedures for Monday, Feb. 6 will be canceled and rescheduled. Patients whose appointments were rescheduled will be contacted directly by their provider and/or care facility.

TMH did not provide details about the cyber attack, however, local media reported [1, 2, 3] that the hospital was hit by a ransomware attack.

“It had the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, but the hospital has not yet characterized it as such, instead calling it an “IT security issue.” Victims often at least initially decline to confirm ransomware attacks.” states CBSNews.

Unfortunately, US hospitals are the targets of multiple ransomware operations, and US authorities already warned healthcare organizations of the risk of imminent attacks.

A few days ago, another US hospital, the Atlantic General Hospital, suffered a ransomware attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, ransomware)