UNM Health has resumed normal hospital and clinic operations after the UNM hospital cyberattack disrupted electronic systems on Oct. 26, forcing a two-hour ambulance diversion and the cancellation of outpatient care for the rest of the day.
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center said critical electronic systems were back online by Oct. 27. Its hospitals were fully open, ambulance traffic had returned to normal, and clinics had restarted scheduled appointments and procedures, according to the university's incident update.
Are UNM Health hospitals and clinics open after the cybersecurity event?
Yes. UNM said its hospitals were open and clinics had returned to regular schedules as of Oct. 27. The disruption occurred the previous day: ambulance traffic was sent to other area health systems from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., while the health system protected its network. Outpatient surgeries and appointments were suspended for the remainder of Oct. 26.
UNM began restoring operations at 2:30 p.m. that day, returning systems in stages. Care teams will work with people whose appointments or procedures were disrupted to reschedule them, the university said.
What UNM says happened
UNM said its security team began containment around 11 a.m. on Oct. 26 after detecting a cybersecurity threat. Hospital leadership activated its Emergency Operations Center, and the university brought in external partners to help secure the network. It also notified state and federal law enforcement.
The university's assessment is that the incident affected some end-user devices but did not reach core systems or servers. That is the current official technical account, not proof that no information was accessed elsewhere. UNM said the matter remains under criminal investigation and gave no further detail about the method of intrusion or any possible data exposure.
Reporting by The Record said a group calling itself BYOD claimed responsibility and alleged that it compromised 36,000 university and hospital machines and stole data involving students, patients and employees. Those are unverified claims from an alleged criminal group. UNM has not confirmed the attribution, a data theft or the use of ransomware.
Classes were canceled at Health Sciences programs
The operational hit extended beyond patient care. Classes were canceled Oct. 27 at the School of Medicine and the colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy and Population Health, while nonessential Health Sciences Center employees were asked to stay home. Central and branch campus classes were not affected. UNM said Health Sciences academic and research programs were expected to return to normal on Oct. 28.
The short diversion still landed on a health system that operates New Mexico's only Level 1 trauma center, according to Associated Press reporting. Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Lovelace Health System coordinated with UNM Health and accepted additional patients during the disruption, the AP reported.
This story draws on original reporting from The Record.
