America Unprotected: Texas Hospital Crippled by Ransomware Attack, Ambulances Redirected

The University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, a critical level-one trauma hospital, has been severely impacted by a ransomware attack, leading to the diversion of emergency patients to nearby facilities. With the only level-one trauma center within 400 miles crippled, West Texas residents have been placed at significant risk by America’s failure to fight cybercrime.

The Register reports that the University Medical Center (UMC) in Lubbock, Texas, has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, forcing the hospital to turn away ambulances and limit its operations. The cyberattack, which occurred on Friday, has caused significant disruptions to the hospital’s services, highlighting the growing threat of ransomware to critical healthcare infrastructure.

UMC, a non-profit hospital and the only level-one trauma center within a 400-mile radius, plays a crucial role in providing emergency care to severely ill patients. The hospital maintains a team of specialists around the clock to handle the most critical cases. Any disruption to its services could have life-threatening consequences for patients in need of urgent medical attention.

In response to the attack, the hospital has taken precautionary measures by temporarily diverting incoming emergency and non-emergency patients via ambulance to nearby health facilities until the issue is resolved. The hospital is working to minimize disruptions to patient care and critical services while the investigation into the incident remains ongoing.

The attack on UMC is part of a disturbing trend of increasing ransomware attacks targeting healthcare organizations. According to cybersecurity firm Sophos, while the overall number of ransomware attacks across industries is slowly declining, attacks against healthcare facilities continue to intensify in both number and scope. In the past two years, two-thirds of surveyed healthcare facilities have suffered at least one ransomware infection, with over half paying criminals to regain control of their networks.

Ransomware attacks on hospitals are particularly insidious because they interfere directly with patient care. In 2021, Breitbart News reported that an a cyberattack on an Alabama hospital directly contributed to the death of a baby.

Earlier this year, a ransomware attack on a subsidiary of UnitedHealth resulted in the private healthcare data of millions of Americans being leaked to hostile groups:

TechCrunch reports that the cyberattack, which began on February 21, 2024, caused widespread disruptions at pharmacies and hospitals across the country. Healthcare providers faced financial pressures as backlogs grew and outages lingered, with much of the U.S. healthcare system grinding to a halt. Change Healthcare, which processes insurance and billing for numerous healthcare facilities, has access to massive amounts of health information on approximately half of all Americans.

UnitedHealth stated that the data review process is expected to take several months before the company can begin notifying affected individuals. While the company has not yet seen evidence of doctors’ charts or complete medical histories being stolen, the hackers managed to exfiltrate files containing personal data and protected health information.

The ransomware attack was allegedly carried out by a Russia-based criminal gang called ALPHV, which reportedly received a $22 million ransom payment from Change Healthcare in March. However, a second hacking group, RansomHub, has since emerged, claiming to possess the stolen data and demanding an additional ransom. UnitedHealth confirmed that a second ransom was paid “as part of the company’s commitment to do all it could to protect patient data from disclosure.”