Rockville General Hospital on Friday, August 4, 2023, in Manchester.Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media
KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) — Two hospitals in the Hudson Valley area were hit with a cyberattack and are diverting patients to other facilities, hospital officials said Friday.
The cyberattack affected computer systems at HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston along with Margaretville Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center — all part of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network.
The health care network planned to shut down IT systems at the three facilities starting at 10 p.m. Friday “to address the threat and take necessary steps to fully retore our secure network,” network officials said in a statement. Ambulances are being diverted from HealthAlliance Hospital as a precaution and some current patients have been discharged to other facilities, officials said.
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HealthAlliance Hospital and Margaretville Hospital remain open and walk-in patients will be treated, assessed and either released or stabilized and transferred to other facilities, officials said. They added that no disruption to care at Mountainside Residential Care Center, a skilled nursing facility, is expected.
The cyberattack is being investigated by local law enforcement authorities along with the FBI and an independent cybersecurity firm, the health network officials said.
A similar cyberattack forced hospitals in several states to shut down their computer systems over the summer.
According to Hearst Connecticut Media, three hospitals in that state also experienced a massive data theft in a nearly month-old cyber attack, but it was unclear Saturday if the attacks in New York and Connecticut were related.
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In a written statement in late August, Prospect Medical Holdings verified the attack knocked computer systems offline and for the first time confirmed some information was obtained by the hackers. The FBI and the state Department of Public Health were investigating the attack, in addition to the hospital chain’s internal probe. The August attack on Prospect Medical Holdings also affected hospitals in California, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.
Contributing: Hearst Connecticut Media, Times Union
2023-10-21 14:06:31
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