Network of Lurie Children's Hospital accessed by 'criminal threat actor'

CHICAGO - New developments have emerged regarding the network outage at Lurie Children's Hospital, which has persisted for a week due to a cybersecurity issue.

Lurie Children's Chief Medical Officer provided an update on Thursday, confirming that their network was accessed by criminals. Marcelo Malakooti, Chief Medical Officer, stated that based on evidence of suspicious activity, they acted swiftly to protect a significant amount of information.

"Based on evidence of suspicious activity and consistent with best practices, we took our systems offline including phone, email, medical records and MyChart. We did this to protect the information of our patients and network at large. It was a known criminal threat actor," said Malakooti.

"Throughout this period, all Lurie Children’s locations have remained open, accepting and caring for patients with as few disruptions as possible," added Brian Stahulak, Chief Clinical and Nursing Officer.

Malakooti emphasized that Lurie is treating the situation with utmost seriousness, collaborating with the FBI, outside experts, and other law enforcement agencies.

The incident remains an active and ongoing investigation.

"We recognize the frustration and concern this situation creates for all those impacted. We are so grateful to our Lurie Children’s community for the outpouring of support. We are especially inspired by our workforce and their resilience and commitment to our mission. We will continue to share our updates as they become available," Lurie's said in a statement.

Despite the network outage, the hospital's call center has remained operational, with hours listed on the Lurie Children's website.