In February, unidentified “threat actors” infiltrated the academic medical center’s system. The malware caused computer systems to slow down or be temporarily unavailable. The attack was “most acute” on the healthcare side, said University of Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton.
UK HealthCare said that there is no evidence that patient information has been exposed. While day-to-day operations may have been interrupted, the quality of care and major disruptions in care were avoided.
The hackers were unable to install ransomware onto the university’s system. However, Mr. Blanton estimates that the costs of the cyberattack are upwards of $1.5 million.
Since rebooting its systems, UK HealthCare has adopted more aggressive security measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
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