HSHS officials say system outage caused by cybersecurity incident

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - HSHS and Prevea Health officials are providing an update on an ongoing system outage.

In a joint video released Friday night, HSHS President and CEO Damond Boatwright says a systemwide technical outage Sunday morning impacted hospital and clinical operations, along with most communication systems.

Incident response protocols were initiated, and Boatwright says based on findings this week, the outage was the result of a cybersecurity incident.

An investigation is ongoing, and Boatwright says work continues to try and get all systems back online.

“I’m relieved to report we are making progress, we’re bringing back critical systems and have restored many of our internal communication applications, like email and messaging,” Boatwright said. “Our I.T. colleagues, along with our outside experts, are working nonstop to fully restore our remaining offline hospital systems as quickly as possible so we all can return to normal operations.”

Boatwright adds HSHS will continue to provide updates on the outage, but some information will not be shared publicly to protect the security of their systems, along with the privacy of patients and the communities they serve.

More information about the outage can be found here.

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