Federal authorities continue to investigate cyber threats made to the NMI hospital.

CEO of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, Dr. Esther Muna said, “Patient safety is our priority. We want to make sure that the records are protected and we are doing everything we're doing a lot really. I don't want to list them down. But, you know, whatever it costs to protect the records, believe me, we spent that cost.”

The NMI’s only hospital started receiving threats through email and WhatsApp regarding alleged unauthorized data transfers in early March.

Hospital CEO Esther Muna and Director of Information Technology Bel Busby directly received those cyber threats. They did not respond as the federal investigation is ongoing.

“The first thing we got to do is make sure that our, you know, patient files are secure. And, you know, one of the biggest priorities, of course, is patient safety. We want to make sure that patients who come in that the provider and the nurse and basically everybody in the hospital who needs to access your health records to treat you, you know, is able to access your records. So that's the priority that we basically placed ourselves in,” said Muna.

They said the hospital has taken every security measure to prevent further threats and protect all data. They admit it is not a new issue for industries across the globe and it likely won’t be the last threat.

Busby said, “Because you can't see it, you can't touch it, you don't know what they're doing. It's sometimes for the ransomware it usually takes a long time to happen. You know, there's a hole they got in. They go around your house, they see what they can say. It will takes months and years. So you don't know. You don't know if they're going to you're going to be hacked. You don't know if it's a ransomware. You don't know if they're just taking data from you.”

They offer this advice to protect your data.

“To all the community, all they can do is be vigilant. Don't click on anything that you know that you don't know about, that you're not aware about. Don't engage on anything, especially if they're asking you for your information. Do not be so lenient and putting your information on the Internet, on the social media,” said Busby.