Atrium Health’s website offline after being targeted by Russian hacking group
Atrium Health’s website was offline Monday afternoon, just after a Russian hacking group posted a threat against the Charlotte-based hospital network.
The hacking group Killnet is known for “denial of service” attacks toward companies and government organizations. Denial of service attacks are cyber-attacks where a criminal overloads a targeted server with requests in order to prevent legitimate requests from being fulfilled.
After Killnet listed Atrium Health’s Cabarrus County location in a post on Telegram, access to AtriumHealth.org was either offline or severely limited as of about 4:30 p.m. Monday. Atrium Health was one of more than a dozen hospital systems listed as targets.
It’s not clear why Atrium Health was specifically targeted. Killnet wrote in another Telegram post that these attacks were in retaliation for European countries providing weapons against Russia’s war in Ukraine. The hacking group threatened more attacks and warned to “take your old people from their hospitals.”
Atrium Health statement:
“We are aware of a temporary disruption to our public-facing website, similar to widespread instances at other health systems around the world on Monday. Our information technology teams have successfully resolved the situation. It’s important to note the disruption affected only our public-facing website. Our hospital systems and patient portal remained fully functional at all times.”
(WATCH BELOW: UNC Charlotte has tech experts speak about cyber attacks)
