Kettering Health reached stability in operations as it continues investigating data leak

During much of that time, patients were unable to get their medical records, talk to their doctors, receive life-altering diagnoses or know when important health procedures would continue at the hospital system.

As of Monday, though, MyChart came back online and phone lines were stable and functioning by Tuesday.

In its most recent release, the health network said it had resumed normal operations for several key services. Those services include inpatient and outpatient services like surgery, imaging, retail pharmacy and physician office visits.

Data leak concerns

Kettering Health is also working on identifying what data or customer information was impacted, the hospital organization said.

“Our investigation is ongoing, and we will directly notify any impacted individuals. Notifications may include fraud protection resources, such as identity theft or credit monitoring,” Kettering Health’s release said.

Earlier this month, the ransomware group Interlock claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, saying on its data leak site that it had 941 gigabytes of data, amounting to more than 730,000 files, from Kettering Health.

Those files allegedly include identification cards, payment data, financial documents and more, according to the cybersecurity firm Comparitech.

Kettering Health also believes the Interlock group is behind the cyberattack. The matter is under investigation by cybersecurity experts and law enforcement, Kettering Health said.

The cyberattack occurred right before the start of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly being held in Dayton, as well as just before Memorial Day weekend.

This was potentially just a coincidence given how often cyberattacks can occur. Kettering Health said there was no evidence linking the two events, NATO and the cyberattack.

“If you look at the frequency of ransomware attacks, they’re just extremely common,” said Alex Hamerstone, advisory solutions director for the cybersecurity firm TrustedSec.

Future risks in cybersecurity

In regard to future risks, Kettering Health is confident that its cybersecurity infrastructure and employee security training will effectively mitigate future risks, the hospital organization said.

Staff education and training will likely be part of that push to reduce potential vulnerabilities, said JP Castellanos, director of threat intelligence at Binary Defense, a cybersecurity company in northeast Ohio. This can include encouraging people not to click on any links or open any attachments from suspicious emails.

Hospitals’ supply chains could also be a vulnerability if cyber threats compromise a third-party vendor for the hospital, Castellanos said.

“The vendor gets compromised by the threat actor and then the threat actor uses that trust that you have in the vendor to send you something malicious, and then you are compromise,” Castellanos said.

Castellanos also recommends regularly updating software systems that the software provider creates, which can patch up unknown vulnerabilities caught by the software company.

Questions about patients’ payment plans, health costs

For patients concerned about bills and health costs, Kettering Health said there may be temporary delays in billing or payment processing, but patient care will not be interrupted.

Once systems are fully restored, patients will receive updated information, Kettering Health’s website says.

For patients on payment plans, Kettering Health said those plans will not be delinquent as a result of the outage. When Kettering Health’s systems went offline, payment plans were paused and will not fall behind or age.

“As part of our recovery efforts, we will reset payment plans so they resume correctly, without affecting your account status,” Kettering Health’s website said.

Additionally, health care costs are not expected to rise just because of the cyberattack.

“Our pricing is not determined based on isolated events. Our focus remains on delivering safe, high-quality care to our community,” Kettering Health’s website says

For more information, visit ketteringhealth.org/cybersecurity-incident-faq/.

Kettering Health has 14 area medical centers and more than 120 outpatient locations throughout Western Ohio, as well as Kettering Physician Network, which includes more than 700 board-certified providers.