University of New Mexico restores hospital systems after cyberattack

The University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center has fully restored its hospital systems, medical school, and research facilities following a cybersecurity incident that began on Monday. The attack forced the temporary diversion of ambulance traffic from UNM Hospital—the state’s only Level 1 trauma center—to facilities in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and led to the suspension of outpatient surgeries and appointments.

While classes and research activities were disrupted through Tuesday, officials confirmed that all clinical operations and academic activities resumed on Wednesday. The university stated that the event affected certain end-user devices but did not penetrate core systems or servers. UNM has not officially classified the event as a ransomware attack and confirmed it did not pay a ransom.

A ransomware group known as BYOD claimed responsibility for the incident, alleging that 36,000 machines and two Oracle databases were compromised. In a public post, the group offered to provide decryption keys for free, stating they did not realize the compromised devices were being used for patient care. However, the group also threatened to retain stolen patient and employee data, offering to destroy the information only if individuals contacted them directly to pay $2,500.

UNM Health Sciences Center has urged students, employees, and patients to avoid any contact with the hackers to prevent identity theft or fraud, advising them to report any such communications to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.