Ohio’s Kettering Health struck by cyber attack

Diving brief:

• Kettering Health faces a cyber attack that has an impact on patient care, the Ohio -based health system announced on Tuesday.
• The supplier was struck by a system of technology at the system scale on Tuesday morning due to unauthorized access to its network, Kettering said in a press release.
• The hospitalized and ambulatory procedures of your choice in health system facilities were canceled on Tuesday. The Kettering call center is also offline and may not be accessible, added the supplier.

Diving insight:

Kettering, which operates 14 medical centers and 120 ambulatory installations in western Ohio, said only the procedures to choose from were currently canceled. Emergencies and clinics of the health system continue to see patients, according to a press release.

“We have taken measures to contain and alleviate this activity and actively study and monitor the situation,” said the system.

The attack comes while cybersecurity has become a major challenge for the health care sector. An increased number of health care data violations is linked to hacking or ransomware, a type of malware that refuses users access to their data, according to a recent study published in Jama Network Open.

Cyberattacks and IT systems breakdowns can also have significant consequences for patients, forcing health systems to delay care or divert emergency cases to neighboring facilities. Industry is a lucrative target for cybercriminals, given the motivation of providers to end patient care disturbances and the great value of stolen medical records, according to experts.

The health care industry recently resisted the main cybersecurity incidents. At the beginning of 2024, the processor of complaints belonging to Unitedhealth changed Healthcare was struck by a ransomware attack, exposing the data of 190 million people – the largest violation of health care never reported to federal regulators.

The sector will continue to cope with cyber attacks and intrusions attempts, according to experts. This year, Yale New Haven Health discovered that an unauthorized third party had had access to its network, including data of around 5.6 million people. The renal dialysis supplier, Davita, also faced a ransomware attack last month.