AnMed CEO Breaks Silence on Cyber Attack; Asks Community for Patience
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
As AnMed continues to recover from the late July ransomware cybersecurity break, the organization’s chief executive officer asked for patience in a video released Friday.
William Kenley, AnMed’s chief executive, described the July 26 cybersecurity incident as an attack carried out by people motivated by financial gain and indifferent to the institution’s role in the community.
“Make no mistake,” he said. “It was an attack on all of us.”
The phrasing reflected the vulnerability of a health-care system under digital siege, something well beyond the inconvenience of locked computers and delayed logins. It has been an interruption of systems that help sustain appointments, records, communications, billing, prescriptions, and the unbroken, mostly invisible administrative work of caring for patients from the hospitals to doctors’ offices to the Anderson Free Clinic. In the days since the attack, AnMed said, its staff and outside partners have worked to keep some services available while restoring systems and preparing for a return to normal operations.
The investigation has confirmed that cybercriminals obtained information from AnMed, a spokesperson said of Friday. But exactly what information was taken, and whose information may have been exposed, is still under review. The health system said it continues to work with outside cybersecurity specialists to determine those answers and will directly notify affected patients once reliable information is available.
That uncertainty has become part of the crisis. Kenley acknowledged that the possibility of compromised personal information is frightening, and that the organization has limited its public communications while investigators work to verify the facts. The restraint has left many patients and families frustrated and confused.
AnMed warned that those responsible may try to compound the disruption by publishing stolen information, contacting patients or employees directly, or making additional claims in public. AnMed said anyone receiving an unexpected or suspicious communication related to the incident should not respond, click links, open attachments, provide personal information, or make a payment.
The system has also urged patients and community members to consult AnMed’s website for current, verified updates and guidance on protecting themselves, as well as asked for patience from patients, families, and community partners whose routines have been disrupted by an incident that has unfolded largely beyond their view.
Kenley thanked physicians, employees, and outside partners for continuing to care for patients while rebuilding the systems that support that care, while apologizing for the anxiety, frustration, and disruption the incident has caused.
For an institution that has endured more than 100 years of community life, the present emergency is another difficult chapter, though one unlike the storms, economic reversals, and public-health crises that came before it.
The recovery now depends on slower and less visible work: determining what was taken, identifying who may be affected, restoring remaining services safely, and earning back the trust that allows a hospital to function successfully.
