The University of New Mexico restored systems used by its Health Sciences Center after a Monday cyberattack that diverted ambulances and disrupted medical-school operations, The Record reported Wednesday¹.

HSC, which includes the university's hospitals, medical school and biomedical research facilities, said Wednesday that all facilities were fully functional and that it did not pay a ransom, according to the report¹.

The Record said the attack was claimed Monday evening by a ransomware group calling itself BYOD¹.

HSC warned patients, students, employees and community members not to respond to anyone claiming responsibility, citing a risk of follow-on scams, and said anyone contacted should keep the message and report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center¹.

The Record said BYOD posted apologies Tuesday, claimed it would offer decryption keys for free because it had not known the devices supported patient care, and still threatened to keep stolen patient and employee data unless people paid $2,500 for deletion¹.

The group said, "We are sorry once again. We have morals and we have a heart, we are not villains," The Record reported¹.

HSC, described as housing New Mexico's only burn unit, children's hospital and Level 1 trauma center, turned ambulances away for hours Monday and canceled dozens of outpatient surgeries and appointments, the report said¹.

The Record noted the incident came days after a separate attack on University Hospitals in Cleveland and that multiple health-care incidents this year have drawn federal and state attention; further details of pending legislation were not fully available in the page retrieved for this filing¹.

Sources

1. The RecordUniversity of New Mexico restores hospital systems, urges no contact with hackers9:30 AM

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