Ascension downplays ransomware attack impact

Ascension, the largest Catholic nonprofit hospital network in the U.S., has reported that only seven of its 25,000 servers have compromised following a ransomware attack last month, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Infiltration of the said servers, which are primarily used for daily and routine tasks, through a malicious file downloaded due to human error has enabled attackers to potentially obtain protected health information and personally identifiable information, said Ascension officials, who emphasized that the impacted systems were not linked to the hospital network's electronic health record system. Investigation into the extent of the incident, as well as the types of data stolen in the attack, is still underway.

Such a disclosure comes after Ascension confirmed the restoration of EHRs at all of its Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin hospitals, with the recovery of such systems across other hospitals already imminent.