One Brooklyn Health issued a breach notice, shining a light on the reported network outages faced by the New York provider in November and December.
OBH had kept relatively quiet amid local media outlets’ coverage of patients experiencing care delays because of the breach. As SC Media previously reported, its hospitals were forced offline due to an unexplained IT issue in November, with providers operating under electronic health record downtime and leveraging paper processes to maintain patient care.
The New York State Department of Health confirmed to SC Media that it was aware of the incident and was working with OBH to prioritize patient safety. However, the health system provided scant details on the outage or the attack, much to the frustration of patients.
The notice confirms the “cybersecurity incident” struck Nov. 19 and affected three OBH hospitals and affiliated care sites: Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center, and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. These safety net hospitals serve approximately 1 million under-resourced patients in the Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood.
The incident impacted all computer systems and temporarily disrupted certain operating procedures. While the description of the incident points to ransomware, officials did not confirm the cause behind the attack.
