Hospital thwarts potential cyber breach

A high volume of internet traffic, apparently directed toward SoutheastHEALTH’s mainframe, resulted in a shutdown of the health system’s computer network for a couple of days last week.

Southeast vice president of marketing and business development Shauna Hoffman said the incident happened Oct. 14 and could have potentially impacted Southeast Hospital’s email and internet channels.

“Our IT team noticed very heavy external internet traffic trying to come into our system,” she said. “They responded immediately by shutting down the network to prevent any attempted cybersecurity breach.”

During the network shutdown, Southeast staff used “pen and paper” technology rather than the hospital’s computer network.

“Our clinical teams moved to a paper process, and that further prompted a decision to put our emergency department on diversion to alleviate the added burden to staff,” she said.

The diversionary period lasted until about 2 p.m. Friday, and Southeast’s information technology network was back online by Saturday following a complete check of the system’s firewalls and other security measures.

“They (the hospital’s information technology staff) got us back up when they knew it was safe to do so and after they reviewed everything,” Hoffman said.

According to a statement issued Tuesday by SoutheastHEALTH, “no personal health information was compromised since Southeast’s electronic medical record system is remotely hosted through Cerner in Kansas City.” Cerner Corp. provides health information technology services at thousands of hospitals and health systems worldwide, including SoutheastHEALTH.

Southeast president and CEO Ken Bateman acknowledged the hospital’s IT staff “for their incredible work and quick response to this incident.”

He also commended Southeast’s clinical and support staff.

“They continued to deliver high quality patient care through this unforeseen challenge,” he said.

The source of the unusually heavy volume of internet traffic has not been determined, although Hoffman said Southeast’s information technology staff is continuing to look into the matter.

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