Ferguson Medical Group victim of recent cyber attack

SIKESTON, Mo. – A Sikeston medical group has announced it fell victim to a recent cyber attack.

In a release from Saint Francis Medical Center, on Sept. 21 officials became aware that the computer network utilized by Ferguson Medical Group before being acquired by Saint Francis Medical Center experienced a cyber attack the previous day.

As a result of the attack, all of the medial records for services provided at FMG prior to Jan. 1, 2019, were made inaccessible to Saint Francis and they were asked to pay a ransom to regain access to the records. Saint Francis took immediate steps to secure the network and worked with federal law enforcement throughout that process.

“Upon learning of the incident, Saint Francis took several steps to investigate the incident – to ensure that the attack was limited to the Ferguson Medical Group network, and to confirm that the threat was eradicated,” said Christy Russell, communications coordinator for Saint Francis Medical Center when asked why it took two months to release information of the cyber attack. “All of these activities took time to properly complete. Saint Francis also had to take the time to identify the individuals whose information may have been impacted and to prepare the communications to those individuals.”

She added Saint Francis completed the investigation but does not know the identity of the attacks, “but attacks of this nature typically originate from outside the United States,” Russell said.

Saint Francis did not pay a ransom to the attacker, but instead restored access to the medical records through available backup files. However, Saint Francis was not able to restore access to all of the impacted records. Any records for services provided at FMG between September 20, 2018, and December 31, 2018, as well as any documentation that had been scanned into the FMG system, regardless of date, were unable to be restored.

Russell said approximately 107,000 patients had records in the electronic medical records system and may have been impacted by the attack.

“Of those, we were able to recover the vast majority of the records,” Russell said. “Of the 107,000, we are unable to determine the exact number of patients who had records that were unable to be restored.”

According to the release, Saint Francis does not believe that this incident resulted in the disclosure of any patient information to any unauthorized third parties.

While there is no indication that patient information has been or will be used inappropriately, Saint Francis is notifying all impacted individuals who can be identified and located and is advising them of precautionary steps they can take to protect themselves, including offering complimentary credit monitoring service.

Information about how to enroll in the free credit monitoring is available in the letters mailed to patients or by calling the toll-free number Saint Francis established for this matter.

In the release, Saint Francis said they regret that this incident occurred and is committed to providing quality care and safeguarding personal information.

“Upon learning of the incident, we immediately took steps to secure the Ferguson Medical Group network so this type of attack could not occur again,” said Lori Sturgill, chief information officer at Saint Francis Healthcare System. “The core SFHS network was protected throughout this incident. We have reviewed security practices and applied improvements to the following areas: network security and systems, backup processes, endpoint protection, email security, and end user training. Ongoing efforts continue as we introduce new tools into our environment to improve the SFHS cyber security posture.”

Saint Francis has established a call center to answer any questions that patients may have about this incident.

Individuals may contact the call center at (866) 611-1186 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. central time, Monday through Friday.