DAYTON, Ohio (WXIX) – Kettering Health first announced it was experiencing a system-wide outage around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, limiting its ability to access “certain patient care systems.”
By about 11 a.m. they confirmed it was a cyberattack.
They’ve said they’re working to contain and mitigate this activity and are actively investigating.
“So if you get your systems locked up and it affects your ability to provide medical care, you know, people’s lives could be on the line or under risk, so there’s pressure,” said Dr. Richard Harknett, Co-Director of the Ohio Cyber Range Institute.
Kettering Health, a Dayton-based hospital group, says it experienced a cybersecurity attack due to unauthorized access to its network, including the call center.
“This has all of the markings of what we call a ransomware attack,” Dr. Harknett said.
All elective inpatient and outpatient procedures at its facilities were canceled for the day because of the outage.
Kettering Health posted to their website stating: “We have taken steps to contain and mitigate this activity and are actively investigating and monitoring the situation. We will continue to provide updates as appropriate.”
“If that’s the case, that’s a good thing. It’s one of the ways that when you say fix it, it’s more manage it. So, in this case we call it cyber-resiliency. How resilient are you? Can you get your operations back up and running in a quick way?” Dr. Harknett said.
Dr. Harknett says there are things to be aware of if you’re a patient.
“In your medical records, typically, also is your payment records if you have a credit card that was in your system, you may have to think that that credit card may be exposed, so do a little credit card monitoring.”
Kettering Health says they have received reports of people calling patients — claiming to be Kettering Health team members and requesting credit card payments for medical expenses.
Kettering said in a statement: “While it is customary for Kettering Health to contact patients by phone to discuss payment options for medical bills, out of an abundance of caution, we will not be making calls to ask for or receive payment over the phone until further notice.”
So far, these calls have not been connected to the system-wide technology outage.
If you do receive a scam call, patients are encouraged to report them to local law enforcement.
FOX19 NOW reached out to the hospital group for more details.
They say they’ve released the most up-to-date information.
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