CEO of SRHS addresses cyberattack at Ocean Springs-Gautier area council meeting

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) - Singing River Health System is looking ahead with optimism following the recent cyberattack.

SRHS CEO Laurin St. Pe is pushing forward following the incident, which cause widespread disruption.

“So, this is something we are all going to have to deal with, and again, they’re terrorists, especially when they’re getting paid money,” said St. Pe. “They’re going to continue to come after different businesses.”

As the investigation continues, Singing River aims to ramp up their internal system’s cyber protection.

“We’re waiting on forensic information to come back that will help us further understand exactly where they were able to penetrate,” St. Pe added. “We’re going to beef up our security measures after we have that information.”

While they aren’t able to pinpoint a location for the attack, the terrorist group did leave their signature mark. Approximately one week into the attack, a CEO from a West Coast healthcare system revealed to St. Pe that they were hit by the same group of hackers.

“She informed me that they have been down and were still down on downtime operations for five weeks,” he said. “My stomach dropped.”

Fortunately, SRHS has moved past documenting patient care on paper.

“We’re hoping to have our internet services up this week but all externals, we’re able to submit bills out and invoices. Other third-party companies are all back connected now as well.”

St. Pe states he couldn’t be happier with his team putting the needs of patients first every single step of the process.

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