Lurie Children’s Hospital Confirms Cyberattack by Known Criminal Threat Actor: FBI Investigates

Lurie Children’s Hospital Confirms Cyberattack by Criminal Threat Actor

The highly esteemed Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago revealed during a press conference on Thursday that it has fallen victim to a cyberattack carried out by a notorious criminal entity. The hospital’s network has been compromised, leaving them without vital communication services, including phones and email, for the past nine days.

Making matters worse, hospital authorities did not disclose the identity of the criminal threat actor responsible for the cyberattack. The hospital is working in collaboration with internal and external cyber experts, as well as the FBI, to pinpoint the source of the attack.

Despite the crippling incident, Chief Nursing Officer Brian Stahulak assured the public that the hospital had executed its emergency preparedness plans promptly. Downtime procedures have been enforced throughout the organization to minimize the impact of the cyberattack.

Experts Speculate on Motive for Targeting a Children’s Hospital

The motive behind such a disturbing act perplexes cybersecurity experts. Jeremy Treister, President of CMIT Solutions and a seasoned cybersecurity specialist, suggests that hackers could be driven by the pursuit of financial gain or a desire for political notoriety. Highlighting the prevalent hiring of hackers in the digital underworld, Treister also suggests hackers may simply be showcasing their skills to gain recognition.

Hackers view any organization, even a children’s hospital, as a potential target due to the potential profits that can be generated from ransoms or the exploitation of vulnerabilities. Furthermore, complicating matters is the fact that large-scale cyberattacks can often take several weeks to fully recover from, due to the size and complexity of the compromised network.

Establishment of Call Center to Address Essential Patient Needs

Recognizing the critical patient care requirements, Lurie Children’s Hospital has established a dedicated call center. This call center will address non-urgent patient requests, care inquiries, scheduled patient appointments, and patient prescription refills. Patients can contact the Lurie Children’s call center at 1-800-543-7362 during the operational hours: Monday to Friday (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.), Saturday (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), and Sunday (8 a.m. to noon).

For the most up-to-date information on hospital operations and services, patients are urged to visit the official Lurie Children’s Hospital website at luriechildrens.org.