Large hospital network resorts to pen and paper after hack

Buildings stand in the Milwaukee skyline, in Milwaukee. A cyberattack on the Ascension health system across the US diverted ambulances, caused patients to miss medical visits and blocked online their online access to their records. An Ascension spokesperson said it detected ‘unusual activity’ Wednesday, May 8, 2024 on its computer network systems and that both its electronic records system and the MyChart system that gives patients access to their records and allows them to communicate with their doctors were offlline. — AP

Brian Kirsch knew something was wrong at his local medical clinic when he turned up for a scheduled appointment on Wednesday morning.

"They didn’t have me on file for even having an appointment because they couldn’t print out the new schedule,” Kirsch, an IT instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College, said in an interview. "The computer systems weren’t working. They couldn’t pull up my medical records.”