[ad_1]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Hackers have claimed responsibility for the Norton Healthcare “cyber event” that took many of the company’s systems offline May 9 and continues to plague physicians and patients.
Several cyber security websites say BlackCat has claimed responsibility for the attack and leaked files as proof. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put out a presentation warning about BlackCat Ransomware and its threat to the health sector. HHS said BlackCat — which is relatively new and was first detected in November 2021 — has demanded ransoms as high as $1.5 million and uses what’s called “bulletproof hosting for their websites and a Bitcoin mixer” to make transactions anonymous.
In May, Norton said it “proactively” took down network systems after employees noticed suspicious activity and received a fax containing threats and demands. Renee Murphy, chief marketing and communications officer for Norton, said the process to restore its systems is “extensive.”
A blue box on the home page of Norton’s website alerts patients that the events of May 9 are part of an “active, thorough and ongoing investigation,” limiting the details officials can share with the public.
“We know our patients have questions,” the message says. “We do too and experts are working as quickly as they can to get answers.”
And with the threat to patients’ information at top of mind, many are worried what the hack means for them. One patient worried about mammograms being lost in the hack said Norton told her that mammogram archives are still in the system, but may not be available for comparison right now.
Norton has not commented on that.
“Network applications are being reviewed as they are brought back online,” Murphy said. “Any urgent and emergent patient issues are being addressed, and we encourage patients to call their provider if they have questions.”
Norton Healthcare has continued to call the hack a “cyber event.” Two weeks after the incident, the company said patients continued experiencing “long wait times” when trying to reach offices by phone as well as “delays in network-related capabilities” such as imaging, lab and test results, prescription fulfillment and messaging through MyChart, the system’s electronic medical records software.
Providers spent weeks “working through a backlog” of MyChart messages, and prescriptions for uncontrolled substances were being “called in” to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, Norton said.
Norton has said it is working with law enforcement related to the May 9 incident.
Norton is a health care giant serving about 600,000 patients per year with about $4.7 billion in assets, including five hospitals and eight outpatient centers. The system also operates 18 urgent care clinics and 289 doctors’ offices. Norton brought in $3.6 billion in revenue in 2022.
There’s still no official word on if patient information was compromised.
Related Stories:
Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
If you have information about a story you think the WDRB Investigates Team should look into, you can email [email protected] or call the WDRB Investigates line at 502-322-1297.
[ad_2]
