Luminis Health cyberattack forces Anne Arundel Medical Center to reroute patients
ANNAPOLIS, Md. —
Anne Arundel Medical Center has cancelled treatments and has re-routed patients to other hospitals following a cybersecurity attack on Luminis Health Care
One cancer patient who talked with WBAL-TV 11 News said her treatment has been impacted by the cybersecurity incident.
“Originally I was diagnosed with cancer, and I went through chemo fighting. And my second kind of treatment is radiation,” she told WBAL-TV 11 News. “I’m supposed to get radiation treatment there and that’s been delayed.”
Luminis Health officials have not provided details on the impact, other than to say that a cybersecurity incident has disrupted certain computer systems, potentially affecting appointments, scheduled services and access to MyChart.
“I was scheduled to come in on Monday, August 31st, and they called me before and said that the computers were down and they weren’t able to give me the treatment,” the patient told WBAL-TV 11 News.
She said the hospital has not rescheduled her treatment due to the cybersecurity incident.
In a statement, a Luminis Health spokesperson issued a statement addressing the incident.
“Our priority remains providing safe, high quality care to our patients while responding to this incident. We take the security of our systems seriously and we are working urgently to address the incident,” Jennifer Savina, senior director of marketing and communications said.
A cybersecurity expert said incidents like the one impacting the medical center may become more common.
“I think we’re in an era now where it’s going to be a lot harder to protect systems,” Johns Hopkins University Professor Emeritus Avi Rubin said.
Rubin said recent attacks are often AI-driven, often probing systems in ways that they have not in the past.
“Attackers can get access to systems through many different techniques and vulnerabilities. Oftentimes, the attackers will have already been probing the system and casing the system for a long time before they launch an attack,” Rubin said. “Very often we find that the attackers are aided by insiders.”
In a statement to WBAL-TV 11 News, the Maryland Department of Health said they are aware of the issues affecting Luminis Health.
“On Monday, August 31, Luminis Health alerted the state that they were having technology issues that resulted in a reroute. On Tuesday, September 1, Luminis released a message notifying the public that a cyber incident was impacting certain systems across their organization. State agencies including Maryland Department of Health (MDH), Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS), Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM) and the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) have met with local stakeholders, as well as Luminis Health leadership to assess any critical needs and available support. The event remains under investigation.”
Patients of Luminis Health can check the health system’s website with updates on the situation.
