Dickinson County Healthcare System responding to malware attack

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WLUC) -The Dickinson County Healthcare System is in the process of a confidential investigation and recovery after the hospital had a ransomware attack on Saturday. A written statement provided to TV6, from the hospital says,

'DCHS is in the process of responding to a recent security incident involving malicious software (commonly known in the industry as ransomware) that has disrupted access to computer systems at our hospital and clinics. Upon discovery of unauthorized access to our IT system on the morning of Saturday, October 17, we took the utmost precautions to shut down the system to isolate the threat. In addition, we are working with third-party computer security and forensic experts to determine the full nature and scope of the event and restore our systems to full, secure operability. Although it is very early in our investigation, at this time, there is no indication that any data was accessed or taken as a result of this incident. In further response to the incident we have implemented our established contingency procedures to provide continuous safe patient care, until our systems are back online. Nearly all patient care services, including the hospital’s 24/7 emergency department are currently open and operational. While some of our IT systems are down, clinical staff has temporarily shifted operations into manual procedures and are using paper copies in place of digital records to support ongoing services and provide safe care to our patients.

“We are treating this matter with the highest priority and are responding by using industry best practices while implementing aggressive protection measures,” said Chuck Nelson, Dickinson County Healthcare Chief Executive Officer. “While we investigate, our top priority is maintaining our high standards for patient care throughout our system.”

We are committed to completing a full forensic investigation following resolution of this outage, and we will take all appropriate action in response to our findings. We have also notified law enforcement and are sharing information with them. As our investigation and recovery continue, we will provide updates on our progress.'