Cyber Incident Forces UNM Health to Cancel Surgeries, Divert Ambulances

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM HSC) has been hit by a cyber incident, which resulted in the cancellation of surgeries and diversion of ambulances.

The medical center disclosed the incident on Monday October 26 at 2.30pm MDT, informing patients that all appointments, including scheduled surgeries, were cancelled for the rest of the day.

“UNM Health patients should not show up to UNM Health facilities on October 26. Emergencies should be handled by 911 and non-emergencies should be delayed until further notice,” the update read.

Clinical Services Resume but Classes Cancelled

A further update posted at 10.27pm on October 26 confirmed that all UNM Health hospitals had reopened, and clinics would resume regularly scheduled appointments and procedures from Tuesday, October 27.

“At 2:30pm, UNM Health began resuming operations and bringing systems back online in phases, as it was safe to do so. We will work with patients to reschedule missed appointments and procedures,” HSC added.

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All students enrolled at the School of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, College of Nursing, and College of Population Health were told to leave campus on Monday.

As part of its remediation efforts, UNM canceled classes on the Health Sciences campus and sent non-essential employees home.

All classes at the UNM School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and College of Population Health were also canceled on Tuesday, October 27, including online and remote classes, while non-essential employees will remain at home.

However, classes at UNM’s Central and branch campuses are not affected.

BYOD Ransomware Claims Attack

No details on the nature of the incident, or potential perpetrators, have been provided at the time of writing.

However, the emerging ransomware group BYOD has reportedly claimed to be behind the incident affecting UNM HSC.

Cybersecurity intelligence firm VenariX revealed on X that the group listed the University of New Mexico on its data leak site, claiming to have compromised 36,000 machines and exfiltrated sensitive data.

This data allegedly includes student and employee personally identifiable information (PII), research data, student records and internal emails.

“This is your entire network and infrastructure compromised, the entire university COMPLETELY,” the group posted on its data leak site.

UNM HSC receives more than one million patient visits every year, made up of around 900,000 outpatient appointments and around 100,000 emergency room visits.

The Center had 2670 students enrolled in its classes in 2025.

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