Two Calif. hospitals hit by hackers
Two Southern California hospitals are the victims of hackers, according to a report from California Healthline.
Prime Healthcare Services, a fast-growing national hospital chain that operates 42 hospitals in 14 states, said a malware attack disrupted computer servers on Friday at two of its California hospitals, Chino Valley Medical Center in Chino and Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville.
The company said the cyberattack didn’t affect patient safety or compromise patient records.
“This is similar to challenges hospitals across the country are facing, and we have taken extraordinary steps to protect and expeditiously find a resolution to this disruption,” said Fred Ortega, a spokesman for Prime Healthcare.
The FBI is investigating the malware attack.
“We received a malware attack and we were able to identify the issue early on,” Ortega said. “The concern now is to let law enforcement do their thing and find the culprit.”
The two hospitals affected remain operational and steps are being taken to restore their computer systems to full functionality, according to the report. Ortega said some IT systems were shut down by hospital staff as a preventive measure to prevent the spread of malicious software.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.