"USA Today" reported that on the 28th, our country suffered a large-scale cyber attack, and the information system of the American General Health Services Company was completely paralyzed.

This company is one of the largest medical service providers in the United States with a wide range of businesses.

The attack occurred early Sunday morning. Then, the hospital's computer system experienced problems over the weekend. As a result, medical staff had to use pen and paper to record patients' conditions. This change has had a significant impact on healthcare workflow.

The company is headquartered in Pennsylvania, and its business covers many countries and regions, such as the United States, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. The company has a total of 26 emergency hospitals, 328 medical sites, and 42 outpatient hospitals.

The scale was so large that after the attack, medical services in many areas were directly affected, and the matter aroused widespread concern in society.

On Monday morning, the company released the latest news on its official website, mentioning that network services at all company facilities had to be temporarily suspended due to an "information technology security crisis."

The company said it "doesn't appear" that patient data or employee personal information was illegally accessed, copied or used inappropriately, but the claim has raised questions about its authenticity.

The company is working with its IT security partners to restore IT operations as soon as possible.

The equipment has backup procedures set up and we are using offline file processing to care for patients. However, offline processing is not as efficient as online operations, which may cause some inconvenience to patients.

Technology websites said the cyber attack used Ryuk ransomware.

People familiar with the matter pointed out that the words "Shadow Universe" displayed on the computer screen were consistent with the information related to this ransomware.

Ransomware often disables computer systems and demands a ransom in order to regain access to the system and data.

It was confirmed that it was Ryuk ransomware, but it became very difficult to track down the person behind it. Cybercrime is highly concealed, which makes hospitals and relevant departments encounter difficulties in solving the problem and do not know where to start.

Staff at a Florida hospital revealed that there was chaos in the emergency room, the catheterization room was out of use, and ambulances transporting heart disease patients were forced to change routes.

This condition poses a threat to the life safety of heart disease patients. They urgently need timely treatment, and diversion will undoubtedly take up their valuable treatment time.

California staff said that emergency rooms no longer accept ambulances, operating rooms have also been suspended, and various treatment methods have been adjusted accordingly.

As a result, the emergency scene has become disorganized and it is difficult for patients to receive effective treatment quickly. This situation greatly increases the risk of the condition worsening.

Nurses at a United Health Services center in North Dakota said they noticed their computers were running so slowly that by early Sunday morning they wouldn't turn on at all. By Monday morning, all computers were unusable.

Operations rely on offline recording and other methods, which are inefficient and make frequent errors, placing a heavy burden on nurses' work.

A nurse at a hospital in Arizona said that last weekend, the computer suddenly stopped working properly. Since hospital medical information completely relies on the Internet, this situation has brought a lot of inconvenience to nursing work. Not only does this make it difficult to obtain patient information, it also leads to a decrease in the quality of care.

Sotnikov, a senior executive at an IT security company, mentioned that ransomware attacks have caused huge damage to the medical industry. This attack prevents hospital users from accessing IT systems and patient data, thereby affecting the hospital's normal treatment of patients. In extreme cases, it may endanger the patient's life.

This attack is enough to prove the reality of this harm.

The attack highlighted the vulnerabilities of healthcare system cybersecurity.

Hospital network security must be hardened so that in the event of an attack, patient care is minimally affected. This problem not only troubles the U.S. medical community, but is also a problem that the global medical industry faces and needs to think deeply about.

What are the most urgent points for the U.S. healthcare system to address in response to this type of cyberattack?