Lurie Children's Hospital faces computer network outage due to cybersecurity alert
CHICAGO - The Chicago area's largest children's hospital is currently grappling with a computer network outage, coinciding with a nationwide alert regarding cyberattacks targeting hospitals.
This is not the first time Lurie Children's Hospital has faced data-related issues. Last year, the hospital experienced a leak of social security numbers, names, birthdays, and addresses.
Concerns arose on Wednesday morning when parents noticed online irregularities. A message on the hospital's website indicates an ongoing network outage affecting the internet, emails, phone service, and access to MyChart, a platform crucial for patients containing important health information, the ability to schedule doctor's visits, and details on upcoming procedures.
Sources informed FOX 32 that a memo was circulated, stating that phone, email, and online medical records were disabled as a precautionary measure.
Lurie Children's Hospital released the following statement at 10 p.m. Thursday:
"Lurie Children's is actively responding to a cybersecurity matter. We are taking this very seriously, are investigating with the support of leading experts and are working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies. As part of our response to this matter, we have taken network systems offline."
On Friday morning, Lurie's clarified the "cybersecurity matter impacts Lurie Children's main hospital, outpatient centers and primary care offices."
Melissa Ejupovic, whose son underwent leg surgery at the hospital on Thursday, said there were a lot of challenges due to the network outage.
"The nurses were supposed to call me a day ahead of the surgery tell me what time," Ejupovic said. "I could never get ahold of any one, so I drove all the way over here and they had no clue what was going on. Everyone was so confused."
An alert on the hospital's website was updated Sunday morning and states that they are actively working to resolve the issue.
"It could have been a ransomware attack, where you have a group of individuals who targeted an institution, shut down their system and said, 'hey if you don't pay me X amount, we're not going to turn things back on.' It could be foreign nationals, quite possibly the Chinese. I know that's been floated recently in testimony this week before Congress. Their efforts to penetrate and be able to disable US infrastructure is becoming quite rampant," said Ross Rice, former FBI agent.
Lurie officials said they have established a call center to help affected patients and families.
The website says to call 1.800.KIDS.DOC (1.800.543.7362), M-F 8 a.m.-8p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-12 p.m., with any questions or concerns including:
- Non-urgent patient requests and care questions
- Information regarding scheduled patient appointments
- Patient prescription refill requests
During the hours the Call Center is closed, call the main operator at 312.227.4000.