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.

Follow
me
on
Twitter:


@securityaffairs
and


Facebook
and


Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs –

hacking,
ransomware)

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About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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