At small and rural hospitals, ransomware attacks are causing unprecedented crises

At 12:08 p.m. on a Monday, a Sky Lakes Medical Center employee tapped an email link.

Within minutes, that click cracked open the Oregon hospital’s digital infrastructure for cybercriminals to infiltrate. By the time IT staff started looking into it, “everything was being encrypted,” said John Gaede, director of information services. On a note discovered in a server, the attackers announced the 100-bed Klamath Falls hospital had been hit with ransomware.

“None of us have ever experienced anything like this,” Gaede said. The ramifications were sweeping. Sky Lakes serves a 10,000-square-mile area in rural southern Oregon; the next closest hospital is 72 miles to the west, 140 miles to the north, 100 miles to the east or 100 miles south. In other words, Gaede said, “We are the sole provider of care.”

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