Cornwall Community Hospital, a healthcare facility in Ontario, Canada, has been hit by a cyberattack causing delays to scheduled and non-urgent care. The hospital discovered a “network issue” on Tuesday, but officials later confirmed that it was a cyberattack.
Although the hospital has not confirmed if it was a ransomware attack, it hired cybersecurity experts to tackle the issue.
The hospital has not yet provided details of the attack or who may have been behind it. However, it has reassured patients that its clinical Electronic Health Record has not been impacted and that high-quality clinical services are being provided, albeit with delays.
The attack follows a week of cyber incidents in Canada after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Tuesday.
Hospitals have been increasingly targeted by hackers and ransomware groups over the last three months, with dozens of healthcare facilities experiencing downtime as a result of cyberattacks. Culbertson Memorial Hospital in Illinois managed to restore its systems on Tuesday after almost two weeks of disruption due to a cyberattack.
Many healthcare institutions in the United States have reported cyberattacks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights in the last two months. As hospitals continue to be targeted, experts are urging healthcare providers to prioritize cybersecurity and take steps to protect their systems and data.