The University of New Mexico Health System diverted ambulances to hospitals in Albuquerque and Santa Fe for about two hours on Monday 26 October and suspended outpatient surgeries and appointments for the day after a cyberattack hit its network. The organisation, which operates New Mexico's only burn unit, children's hospital and Level 1 trauma centre, contained the incident and notified federal law enforcement; staff were told to unplug desktops and disconnect mobile devices from hospital Wi-Fi. Services largely resumed late Monday, but classes across the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and College of Population Health were cancelled Tuesday. A ransomware gang calling itself BYOD — which emerged last month with only a handful of known victims — claimed responsibility, alleging it compromised 36,000 machines across the main campus and hospital and stole data on students, patients and employees. The Health System, citing an active law-enforcement investigation, has not confirmed data theft or whether ransomware was deployed. It is the second major attack on a large US state hospital this year after University of Mississippi Medical Center's weeks-long disruption in March.

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