'Known Criminal Threat Actor' Penetrated Lurie Children's Hospital

CHICAGO ? Nine days after a cyberattack led officials at Lurie Children's Hospital to disable its electronic systems, hospital leadership confirmed that a hacker had compromised its networks.

The breach was discovered on Jan. 31, prompting staff to shut down the hospital's phone, email and electronic medical records system.

Ever since, workers at the hospital had had to rely on manual processes to continue providing care to patients.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marcelo Malakooti addressed the media Thursday at a news conference.

"We can now confirm that our network was accessed by a known criminal threat actor," Malakooti said.

"We take this matter very seriously and have been working closely around the clock with outside and internal experts and in collaboration with law enforcement, including the FBI," Malakooti told reporters.

"This is an active and ongoing investigation," he said. "As an academic medical center, our systems are highly complex, and these incidents can take time to resolve."

Brian Stahulak, Lurie's chief nursing officer, said all locations have remained open since the attack. He praised the work of staff under difficult conditions.

"As soon as the matters occurred, we implemented our emergency preparedness plans, including downtime procedures throughout the organization," Stahulak said.

The hospital has established a new call center to facilitate communications with patients and their families.

"Through the call center, we have been able to refill prescriptions, discuss appointments and connect patients to their care providers," he said.

Hospital officials did not take any questions at the news conference and offered no estimate of when the system would be back online.

More information about the phone number and the latest updates are available from the hospital's website.

"We recognize the frustration and concern this situation creates for all those impacted," it said. "We are so grateful to our Lurie Children?s community for the outpouring of support. We are especially inspired by our workforce and their resilience and commitment to our mission."