Cyberattack forces a US health care network to divert ambulances from hospitals [Video]

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A major US health care system said Thursday that it is diverting ambulances from “several” of its hospitals following a cyberattack this week.

The cyberattack on Ascension, a St. Louis-based nonprofit network that includes 140 hospitals in 19 states, is also disrupting access to electronic health records, some phone systems and “various systems utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications,” Ascension said in a statement distributed Thursday evening.

The sprawling health care network, which also owns 40 senior living facilities, said that it would be using “downtime procedure for some time,” because of the cyberattack. Downtime procedures are typically when health providers revert to backup processes, including paper records, that allow them to care for patients when computers are down.

Four sources briefed on the investigation told CNN that Ascension suffered a ransomware attack, in which cybercriminals typically try to lock computers and steal data for extortion. Those sources …