INVESTIGATION. BACK HERE, CLOSER TO HOME WORKERS AT MERCY, ONE WILL GET THE SAME PAYCHECK THEY RECEIVED TWO WEEKS AGO BECAUSE OF A RANSOMWARE ATTACK. THE HEALTH SYSTEM SAYS WORKERS WILL GET PAID FRIDAY. AN INTERNAL MEMO OBTAINED BY KCCI SHOWS WORKERS WILL GET THE NORMAL FULL TIME EQUIVALENT PAY AND THE SAME AMOUNT OF PAY AS THEIR LAST PAYCHECK FOR ANY OVERTIME THEY WORKED. MERCY ONE SAYS IT’S GRATEFUL FOR STAFF MEMBERS AND IS COMMITTED TO PAYING THEM FOR THE HOURS THEY WORKED, EVEN THOUGH THE PAYCHECKS WILL BE THE SAME THIS FRIDAY, THE DISCREPANCIES WILL EVENTUALLY BE WORKED OUT ONCE THAT PAYRO
MercyOne employees will be paid the same as last paycheck due to ransomware attack
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Updated: 9:04 PM CDT Oct 18, 2022
Employees at MercyOne will be paid Friday, but how much they'll be paid will remain the same.A ransomware attack on MercyOne's former parent company CommonSpirit has taken its payroll software offline. Because of that outage, employees will be paid their full-time equivalent plus the same amount of overtime hours as their last paycheck, according to an internal message sent to some employees obtained by KCCI. The same internal communication said vacation time, overtime and other pay will be sorted out once the system comes back online."We are grateful to our staff who are doing everything possible to minimize the impact to our patients while continuing to provide high quality patient care," MercyOne Central Iowa said in a statement to KCCI Tuesday morning. "As a result of the recent cyberattack, our facilities are following existing protocols for system outages. As CommonSpirit works through bringing systems back online, we will meet payroll dates and our teams are committed to paying employees for every hour worked."MercyOne's former parent company, CommonSpirit, says it is now working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to fix the problem. It is unclear what law enforcement agency is investigating. The FBI field office in Omaha can not confirm or deny an investigation, according to a public information officer. The attack was discovered on Oct. 3, and systems have been down since. It was originally described as an "IT security incident," but has since been deemed ransomware. If that ransom was paid, or how much, has not been released.Click below to see more from James Stratton:
DES MOINES, Iowa — Employees at MercyOne will be paid Friday, but how much they'll be paid will remain the same.
A ransomware attack on MercyOne's former parent company CommonSpirit has taken its payroll software offline. Because of that outage, employees will be paid their full-time equivalent plus the same amount of overtime hours as their last paycheck, according to an internal message sent to some employees obtained by KCCI. The same internal communication said vacation time, overtime and other pay will be sorted out once the system comes back online.
"We are grateful to our staff who are doing everything possible to minimize the impact to our patients while continuing to provide high quality patient care," MercyOne Central Iowa said in a statement to KCCI Tuesday morning. "As a result of the recent cyberattack, our facilities are following existing protocols for system outages. As CommonSpirit works through bringing systems back online, we will meet payroll dates and our teams are committed to paying employees for every hour worked."
MercyOne's former parent company, CommonSpirit, says it is now working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to fix the problem. It is unclear what law enforcement agency is investigating. The FBI field office in Omaha can not confirm or deny an investigation, according to a public information officer.
The attack was discovered on Oct. 3, and systems have been down since. It was originally described as an "IT security incident," but has since been deemed ransomware. If that ransom was paid, or how much, has not been released.
Click below to see more from James Stratton:
