On Monday, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center information technology teams identified a cybersecurity threat around 11 a.m. and began containment efforts. From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., the health system temporarily diverted ambulance traffic to other hospitals in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, while outpatient surgeries and appointments were suspended for the remainder of the day as teams worked to protect the network. Notably, UNM Hospital is New Mexico’s only Level I trauma center.

In an update provided by the UNM Health Sciences Center the following afternoon, officials said critical electronic systems were back online. “All UNM Health hospitals are fully open, ambulance traffic has returned to normal operations, and clinics have resumed regularly scheduled appointments and procedures,” the update stated. “Their assessment determined that the event affected some end-user devices but did not penetrate core systems or servers. Teams worked with external partners to secure the network and notified state and federal law enforcement.”

Classes at the UNM School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and College of Population Health remained canceled on Tuesday, and nonessential Health Sciences Center employees were asked to remain home. A later update added, “Classes and research activities at the UNM Health Sciences Center resumed Wednesday and clinical operations across all UNM Health facilities are fully functional.”

The incident remains under criminal investigation, which may have limited what the university has shared publicly. UNM has not described the event as a ransomware attack.

While all of this was going on, a hacker group called BYOD also listed the University of New Mexico on its data-leak site, which operates as a Tor hidden service.

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