FBI investigates cyberattack on Lurie Children’s Hospital

Editor's Note

Billing, records, appointment scheduling and other systems at Lurie Children’s Hospital were still offline a week after representatives of had to cancel a planned OR Business Management Conference presentation due to a cyberattack.

According to a February 12 report from the Chicago Sun-Times, the January 31 cyberattack is still “having ripple effects across the pediatric medical community — from slow-downs in billing to young patients being sent to other hospitals to community physicians who rely on Lurie’s system struggling to communicate with families.”

The report notes that all locations of the Chicago area’s biggest children’s hospital remain open and patients are encouraged to keep appointments. However, doctors lack details needed for decision-making, such as medial history, lab results and medications. Due to communications difficulties, some pediatricians are sending patients with urgent needs to other hospitals.

According to a February 13 report from Health IT Security, the latest update provided to patients confirmed that the hospital's network was "accessed by a known criminal threat actor."

"We take this matter very seriously and have been working closely, around the clock, with outside and internal experts and in collaboration with law enforcement, including the FBI," the hospital stated. "This is an active and ongoing investigation. As an academic medical center, our systems are highly complex, and these incidents can take time to resolve."