CNN —A network of hospitals in East Texas has not been able to accept ambulances to emergency rooms since Thanksgiving Day because of a “potential [cyber]security incident,” a hospital spokesperson told CNN on Friday.
The hospital network, UT Health East Texas, is operating using “established downtime procedures” as the hospital investigates “a potential security incident” and works to bring computers back online, spokesperson Allison Pollan said in an email.
Headquartered in Tyler, Texas, UT Health East Texas operates 10 hospitals and more than 90 clinics in the region, and provides health care to thousands of patients annually, according to its LinkedIn page.
The East Texas health care system is just the latest hospital group that has been forced to turn ambulances away because of an apparent cybersecurity incident.
The cyber incident at UT Health East Texas began on Thursday when the hospital network “became aware of a network outage” and moved to lock down its network, according to the hospital network’s statement to CNN.
Persons:
”, “, Allison Pollan, Pollan, —, CISA, Allan Liska
Organizations:
CNN, UT Health East, UT Health East Texas, Department of Health, Human Services, Infrastructure Security Agency, FBI, Federal, cyberattacks
Locations:
East Texas, UT Health East Texas, Tyler , Texas, Connecticut , Florida , Idaho, Pennsylvania