University of Mississippi Medical Center Still Offline After Ransomwar

University of Mississippi Medical Center Still Offline After Ransomwar

University of Mississippi Medical Center Still Offline After Ransomwar

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/university-mississippi-medical/

Publish Date: 2026-02-23 03:30:00

Source Domain: www.infosecurity-magazine.com

Mississippi’s largest hospital group is still reeling from a ransomware attack late last week that has forced its IT systems offline.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is one of the state’s largest employers, with over 10,000 staff working across seven hospitals, dozens of clinics and over 200 telehealth sites.

It revealed in a post on X on February 19 that “many UMMC IT systems are down, including access to our electronic medical records,” due to a cybersecurity attack.

“Outpatient and ambulatory surgeries/procedures and imaging appointments are cancelled and will be rescheduled,” it continued. “Hospital services are continuing for our patients using downtime procedures.”

Read more on healthcare ransomware attacks: Patient Death Linked to NHS Cyber-Attack.

UMMC subsequently revealed that it is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, having activated its Emergency Operations Plan. It said it had taken all “network systems” offline as a precaution “and will conduct risk assessments before bringing anything back online.”

All clinics will remain closed on Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 February, with elective procedures cancelled on those days and appointments rescheduled “where possible.”

Its hospitals and emergency departments in Jackson, Grenada, Madison County and Holmes County remain open using “downtime procedures” – which effectively means staff reverting to pen and paper to do their jobs.

Although the identity of the group responsible is currently not know, local reports suggest the threat actors have contacted UMMC. It’s also unclear if any employee or patient data was stolen in the attack.

Resilience is Vital

Steven Swift, MD at Suzu Labs, argued that organizations should plan for worst-case scenarios like this by building resiliency into backup architecture – keeping a copy of backups offline and/or in immutable storage.

“Similarly, organizations should be designing…

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