A cyberattack on the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center disrupted patient care this week, limiting new admissions, diverting ambulances and suspending outpatient surgeries and appointments. The centre disclosed what it called a cybersecurity event on Monday 26 October 2026.

UNM Hospital and Sandoval Regional Medical Center remained open, and clinics resumed scheduled appointments on Tuesday 27 October, while health-sciences classes were cancelled and non-essential staff were told to stay home. UNM has not disclosed the type of attack.

Ransomware claim is unverified

A new ransomware group calling itself Byod has claimed the attack, saying it compromised around 36,000 systems, including Active Directory forests, the full Microsoft Entra tenant and two Oracle databases, and accessed social security numbers, payroll, student records, emails, research and patient data. Those claims are unverified: UNM has not confirmed ransomware or data theft. Byod later offered a free decryption key for hospital devices only, while saying it would keep the data, according to reports.

Until UNM confirms more, the verified facts are the disruption itself: diverted ambulances, limited admissions and cancelled appointments and classes. The scale of any data theft remains a claim by the group, not a confirmed fact.

Sources: BleepingComputer and The Register.