Community Health Northwest Florida has restored its communications systems after a Christmas Eve cyberattack that forced the shutdown of phones, internet, and servers.
CEO Chandra Smiley stated: “When we discovered this intrusion into our systems, we basically had to disconnect our entire operations from the Internet and the world, in order to protect our patient data and privacy from these hackers. That made for an eventful Christmas Day, but our team rallied and decided to open all clinics as soon as possible to continue supporting our patients.”
All clinics have been operating since Dec. 30, using paper records and cell phones for communication. Patients can now contact providers at clinic locations for appointments and prescriptions.
“Our cybersecurity experts, IT team, and service-line managers have been working diligently to get our systems back online as we continued to see patients and support our community,” Smiley added. “We will keep our temporary hotline open as a backup for any patients who have trouble reaching us.”
Feature photo Licensed under the Unsplash+ License
