Covenant Health attack impacts Maine, New Hampshire hospitals

Operations of all data systems at Maine-based St. Joseph Hospital and St. Mary's Health System, as well as New Hampshire-based St. Joseph Hospital, have been disrupted following a cyberattack against Catholic nonprofit health organization Covenant Health on May 26, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Investigation into the incident, which did not significantly affect post-acute care facilities, is already underway, noted Covenant Health. "We are working to provide healthcare services as normal. Patients are encouraged to keep all appointments. If patients have questions, they should contact their provider's office," said Covenant Health. Such a disclosure comes amid escalating intrusions against the U.S. health sector this year, with cyberattack-related outages already reported by Ohio-based hospital system Kettering Health, major dialysis care provider DaVita, New York Blood Center Enterprises, and Maryland-based health network Frederick Health Medical Group. Catholic hospital network Ascension was also targeted by the Black Basta ransomware operation last year.