Cyberattack Disrupts University of New Mexico Health System Operations

A cyberattack disrupted operations at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center on October 26, forcing ambulance diversions, canceling appointments and suspending some outpatient procedures, according to the health system.

UNM activated an Emergency Operations Center and temporarily limited new patient admissions between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The disruption affected New Mexico's only Level I trauma center, making the incident an immediate patient-care issue as well as an IT security event.

The health system said its hospitals remained open and that clinics would resume appointments and procedures on October 27. Classes at the Health Sciences Center were canceled while information security teams continued containment and restoration work.

UNM has not publicly detailed the attack vector, identified an attacker or confirmed whether patient or employee data was accessed. Any claims of responsibility should be treated as unverified unless the health system or investigators provide supporting evidence.

The incident illustrates why healthcare resilience cannot be measured only by whether systems eventually return online. Identity services, scheduling, communications and clinical applications are tightly connected, so a security event in one area can quickly affect admissions, surgery and emergency response.

Hospitals should test how essential services operate during extended IT outages, isolate high-impact clinical systems and predefine the evidence required before reconnecting affected infrastructure. Rapid restoration matters, but reopening systems without confidence that an attacker has been removed can compound both operational and patient-safety risk.