TN Medical Clinic Remains Partially Closed As It Recovers From Cyberattack

Tennessee-based Murfreesboro Medical Clinic & SurgiCenter (MMC) is actively recovering a “sophisticated criminal cyberattack” that it suffered on April 22, its website states.

In response to the attack, MMC immediately initiated an emergency shut down of its network. The clinic has been working with technology partners and law enforcement to identify the source and scope of the attack. In the meantime, many services remain closed.

“Our first priority was to contain the incident and protect our patients and employees,” the notice stated.

“In conjunction with law enforcement, we continue to investigate the incident while also taking action on our infrastructure to, hopefully, prevent any further attacks. With the quick detection by our technology experts, we believe we have been able to limit the impact of this criminal attack.”

MMC initially closed all operations, but as of May 3, reopened on a limited basis. As of May 5, the MMS Pediatrics Walk-In Clinic at Garrison Drive will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for sick visits. The MMC Now Family Walk-In Clinics will remain closed, and all surgeries, gastroenterology procedures, laboratory and radiology services are canceled. MMC Pediatrics will remain open for scheduled appointments.

MMC has not yet determined whether any patient or employee information was accessed or removed from its network but encouraged patients and employees to monitor their personal data for misuse.

“We apologize for the vagueness of our recent communications, but we did not want to do anything that would impede law enforcement’s investigative efforts,” the notice continued.

MMC encouraged patients to monitor its social media pages for the latest updates.

“Preserving sensitive patient and employee information is of the utmost importance to MMC, but like so many other organizations around the country and despite its best efforts, MMC has found itself as the target of criminals attempting to steal personal or company data,” said MMC CEO Joey Peay.

“I want to thank our patients and employees for their understanding and patience while we work to make sure our computer infrastructure is secure and free of any harmful software.”