St. Mary's and Good Samaritan hospitals suffered hack, company says
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Good Samaritan and the St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach are among the Tenet-owned hospitals around the country that were hacked recently, crippling their phone and computer systems.
CBS12 News broke the story last Thursday when the company reported it was experiencing some sort of "network outage." Nurses told CBS12 News they had to chart patient care on paper.
The company said the ‘cybersecurity incident’ is still under investigation. Tenet said its ‘acute care operations’ were temporarily disrupted. There are still some systems that aren’t working properly, but the company says progress is being in getting full function back.
While Tenet has not said if any patient information was stolen, the company said it is taking additional measures to protect patient and employee data. If patient data was compromised, Tenet has 60 days to disclose it publicly from the day it realized the patient data was taken, as CBS 12 News reported in February.
Care, Tenet says, has been safe and effective while systems were down.
A source tells CBS 12 News the other three Tenet-owned hospitals in Palm Beach County were not impacted.
There are three major types of cyber-attacks: ransomware, identity theft, and disruption of care. According to experts, the attacks are an attempt to get money, obtain social security numbers, addresses and credit card data, or involve a foreign enemy trying to interfere with the United States.
CBS 12 News asked a Tenet spokeswoman several follow up questions like if patient data had been compromised, if medical records can still be accessed, if ransom had been demanded, and specifically what systems went down?
Those questions went unanswered.
Tenet in a statement they’re taking additional steps to protect patient, employee, and other data.
It continued, writing some acute care was disrupted temporarily, adding that overall patient care has been safe and effective, and that they’ve relied on backup systems.
Riviera Beach Fire-Rescue said emergencies involving strokes and newborn babies are being diverted away from St. Mary’s until systems are back online.
Richard Stout is a retired FBI agent and current security consultant. He says healthcare is the most common industry targeted by hackers.
“Basically, because it’s a treasure trove of information that’s derived plus the volume of patients. It’s a very lucrative industry," Stout told CBS 12 News.
Last week, CBS 12 News reported that this hack hit other Tenet hospitals in the country, but the other three in Palm Beach County, West Boca, Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, were not impacted.
