Yale New Haven Health investigating cybersecurity incident

Photo | Michael C. Bingham Yale New Haven Hospital.

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Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) said Tuesday it is investigating a cybersecurity incident that affected information technology (IT) services across the system over the weekend.

In a news release, YNHH said the issue was “immediately identified by our Digital and Technology Solutions team, who quickly began working to mitigate the issue and launched an investigation into its source.”

The system said it also worked with Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm, to determine that the issue was, in fact, “a cybersecurity incident.”

YNHH said it is notifying federal authorities of the incident and that Mandiant is conducting an investigation. It did not say what form the cybersecurity incident took or whether any patient or staff information was compromised.

“Due to our team’s quick action to identify and help to contain this incident, it has not affected our ability to provide patient care,” YNHH said. “Our patient portal and electronic medical records are running as normal, and our teams are working hard to manage the impact of phone and internet connection issues on patient care.”

The health system said some intermittent internet and application connectivity issues remain “as our team rebuilds access to programs — this is purposeful and part of our comprehensive protocols for mitigating cybersecurity events.”

The health system apologized for any inconvenience or delays caused by the cybersecurity incident, and thanked staff, patients and the community for being patient as it works to restore full access.

It added that it will provide staff and patients with updates “as appropriate.”