The Maryland Department of Health’s website is back online after it experienced a cyberattack over the weekend.
The Maryland Department of Health’s website is back online after it experienced a cyberattack over the weekend.
Health department officials are scrambling to find out the size of the security breach that forced the agency to take medical records down.
In a tweet late Monday night, the agency said its website was operational again. But “out of an abundance of caution, servers will remain offline.”
The attack was first reported on Sunday. Health workers sent a bulletin to workers telling them to immediately stop using state-issued laptops and desk computers.
The memo also said that several department-hosted systems were affected by the incident, including some health departments.
On Monday, the Baltimore City Health Department tweeted out that the breach had affected its system, causing a “pause in us receiving COVID cases, death, testing and vaccination data.”
State health workers haven’t said much about the size of the security breach and to what extent it’s affected their response against emerging omicron variant cases.
The attack came just days after the state confirmed its first three omicron variant cases.
Andy Owen, a department spokesman, said an investigation with federal and state law enforcement continues.
Owen would not say whether the cyberattack had affected the department’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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