Cyberattack Pushes Maryland Department of Health Website Offline
A cyberattack forced the Maryland Department of Health website offline, preventing residents from accessing the site’s healthcare resources.
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By Jill McKeon
- A cyberattack pushed the Maryland Department of Health website offline over the December 4 weekend, The Washington Post reported.
On December 5, the Department of Health’s webpage was rerouted to the state’s primary site, maryland.gov, as officials looked through individual systems to determine whether any information was stolen.
“The Maryland Security Operations Center is investigating a network security incident involving the Maryland Department of Health,” Andy Owen, a Maryland Department of Health spokesperson, told The Washington Post in a statement.
“Certain systems have been taken offline out of an abundance of caution and other precautions have and will be taken.”
The department’s resources remain largely unavailable, including webpages that allow Maryland residents to order at-home testing for sexually transmitted infections, apply for Medicaid, or get data on nursing home safety.
On December 6, the agency did not update Maryland’s COVID-19 metrics, citing a server outage, CBS Baltimore reported.
“Data will be updated as soon as possible,” the department told CBS.
