Ransomware forces Mississippi medical centre to close 36 clinics

A ransomware attack forced the University of Mississippi Medical Center to close all of its roughly three dozen clinics around the state and cancel elective procedures for a second day on Friday. According to Associated Press, university officials warned the shutdown could continue for days as they assess the extent of the attack and whether patients’ sensitive information was accessed.

They also said investigators were trying to determine the extent of the infiltration, and that the FBI is involved, with health systems taking down information manually where needed. Affected services included planned chemotherapy for patients, with one patient travelling three hours to the main campus in Jackson only to learn he could not be seen that day. The hospital system emphasised that emergency departments remained open and that staff were continuing to provide care as they work to restore network systems.

Written by Associated Press, the report notes the attack impacted the electronic health record platform among “many systems.”