UT Health East Texas disrupted by possible cyberattack

CNN reports that UT Health East Texas had its operations disrupted since Thanksgiving following a network outage stemming from a potential cybersecurity incident. No further details have been provided regarding the incident but the East Texas hospital network noted that it needed to reject ambulances to the emergency room as it operates with "established downtime procedures" as it seeks to restore all impacted computer networks within the next 24 to 36 hours. The intrusion comes amid the increasing prevalence of cyberattacks against healthcare providers across the U.S. since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with ransomware attacks against U.S. health organizations noted by Recorded Future ransomware expert Allan Liska to have risen from 162 in 2022 to 209 in 2023. Mounting healthcare cybersecurity threats have also prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to release cybersecurity guidance for the healthcare and public health sector.