A cybersecurity unit of the Vermont National Guard will help the University of Vermont Medical Center get its systems up and running after the hospital was hit by a cyberattack last week.
Ten National Guard members were called up to active duty Wednesday. The group, called the Combined Cyber Response Team, will work with the medical center to scan and remove malware from all the laptops, medical equipment, and other devices hooked up to the network.
It’s the first time the unit has been called for a mission in Vermont, said Capt. Mike Arcovitch, spokesperson for the National Guard.
Since the UVM Medical Center was hacked last Wednesday, many appointments have been delayed or canceled. The electronic medical records system and patient portal, that includes medical history and prescription information has remained down. Some cancer treatments have been rescheduled. Sleep studies and some cardiology appointments have been canceled.
Starting Wednesday, all outpatient labs closed, and the scheduling systems for UVM Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center were down.
The five other hospitals in Vermont and New York that are part of the UVM Health Network were also impacted to varying extents. Hospitals nationwide have been the victims of ransomware attacks by a Russian group, with an uptick of hacks in recent days. UVM Medical Center President Stephen Leffler said Monday that he didn’t know the source of the attack and hadn’t received a ransom request.
The FBI declined to answer any questions about the investigation, said spokesperson Sarah Ruane.
The IT staff have been working to ensure the systems are secure and haven’t been contaminated with malware or viruses. “There are thousands of end points, computers that need to be cleaned,” said hospital spokesperson Annie Mackin. The National Guard can bring some extra set of hands to do the work. “A lot of it is manpower,” she said, explaining why the unit was called up.
Many of the group’s members have experience working in private sector IT jobs, said Arcovitch. They also have military training to provide cyber support to “mission partners” such as the hospital. “Their capabilities are pretty vast in the cyber security realm,” Arcovitch said.
They’ll be deployed until at least Sunday, with a possibility for extension, Arcovitch said.
Gov. Phil Scott praised the work of the UVM Health Network and its efforts to “respond quickly to this cyberattack, putting patient safety first and steadily restoring systems in a safe and secure manner,” he said in a release.
The Guard’s team “will further bolster this important work,” Scott said.
