A cyberattack at UNM Health paused surgeries and diverted ambulances. Services are back, but patients should expect scam messages that use their care details.
The University of New Mexico's health system was hit by a cyberattack on Monday that paused surgeries, limited new admissions and sent ambulances to other hospitals. By Tuesday, October 27, UNM said its critical systems were back online and clinics were seeing patients again. A criminal group now says it stole data. The university has not confirmed that.
UNM Health began limiting new patient admissions on Monday, diverting ambulances and suspending outpatient surgeries and appointments. On Tuesday, classes at its four health sciences schools were canceled, and nonessential employees were told to stay home. UNM Hospital and Sandoval Regional Medical Center stayed open throughout. UNM Health handles more than 1 million patient visits a year, and UNM Hospital in Albuquerque has the state's only Level I trauma center, which treats the most seriously injured patients.
UNM has not said what kind of attack it suffered. BleepingComputer found that a new ransomware group called Byod claimed it. Ransomware is software that locks a victim's computers so the attackers can demand payment. Byod says it broke into 36,000 systems across the main campus and hospitals, and says it has student and employee personal data. UNM has not responded to questions about those claims.
The group has also said it will hand over free keys to unlock systems at healthcare facilities and pay up to $2,500 per affected patient. It added that it would keep all the stolen data. Those are promises from criminals, not facts.
UNM says its security team worked with outside partners to secure the network. Its assessment found the event affected some end-user devices, meaning everyday computers, but did not reach core systems or servers. That differs sharply from what the hackers say. The two accounts have not been reconciled.
If you need urgent care, UNM says hospitals are fully open and ambulance traffic is back to normal. Clinics have resumed scheduled appointments and procedures. Anyone who has been treated at UNM hospitals, or who works or studies there, should stay alert. UNM itself advises watching for unsolicited messages and phishing, which are fake emails, texts or calls meant to trick you into sharing information or clicking a bad link.
The reason is simple. Scammers who know where you were treated can make a message sound real. The alert box above lists the steps to take.
It is not clear whether any patient, student or employee data was actually taken. The material does not say what types of data, if any, were involved. Byod is a new group. It lists six victims on its leak site and has already published allegedly stolen data from three of them. It calls its work "pentesting," a term for security testing, but a hospital shutdown shows the real-world harm. Further word from UNM would settle whether the group's claims hold up.
Care at UNM is back to normal, but if you were a patient, doubt any unexpected message about your health or bills until you verify it.
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