New Mexico Hospital Network Restores Systems After Ransomware Attack, Warns Public Not to Engage With Hackers

The University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center (HSC) says all of its facilities are now fully functional, days after a cyberattack forced it to divert ambulances and cancel classes at its medical school. HSC includes hospitals, a medical school and biomedical research facilities. It said it did not pay a ransom. For several hours on Monday, ambulances were turned away to other hospitals, and dozens of outpatient surgeries and appointments were cancelled. HSC runs the state's only burn unit, children's hospital and Level 1 trauma center.

A new ransomware gang calling itself BYOD claimed the attack. The group later posted apologies and said it would offer decryption keys for free, claiming it did not know the compromised devices were used to help patients. However, it still threatened to keep stolen patient and employee data. It offered to destroy personal information for anyone who contacted it directly and paid $2,500.

HSC has told employees, students, patients and community members not to engage with anyone claiming responsibility. It warned that attackers may try follow-up scams, such as false offers of payments or compensation. People should not click links, open attachments, download files or share personal or financial information. Anyone contacted should keep the message and report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. The attack came days after a separate incident disrupted systems at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio.