FBI teams up with Lurie Children’s as hacker breaches their network

TLDR

• Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago confirmed that its network was accessed by a known criminal threat actor, resulting in a systems outage.
• The hospital has been working with internal and external experts, including the FBI, to investigate the incident.

The largest pediatric provider in Illinois, Lurie Children’s Hospital, experienced a systems outage last week due to criminal access to its network. The hospital confirmed that a known criminal threat actor accessed its network and has been working with external experts and law enforcement, including the FBI, to investigate the incident. Lurie Children’s locations have remained open with minimal disruptions, and a call center has been established for prescription refills and appointment discussions. The hospital has not specified the type of cyberattack but emphasized that resolving the incident may take time due to the complexity of its systems. Lurie Children’s provides care to over 239,000 children per year across its various locations. The incident is part of a larger trend of cyberattacks and data breaches in the healthcare industry, which has prompted the Biden administration to release voluntary cybersecurity performance goals for hospitals. Children’s hospitals are not immune to cyberattacks, as evidenced by a recent ransomware attack on Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.