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Cyber-Attack Hits U.S. Health Agency Amid Covid-19 Outbreak

The attack appears to have been intended to slow the agency’s systems down, but didn’t do so in any meaningful way. 

Cyber-Attack Hits U.S. Health Agency Amid Covid-19 Outbreak
Pedestrians wear protective masks while walking in New York, U.S., on March 7, 2020. (Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Health and Human Services Department suffered a cyber-attack on its computer system Sunday night during the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The attack appears to have been intended to slow the agency’s systems down, but didn’t do so in any meaningful way, said the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss an incident that was not public

It doesn’t appear that the hackers took any data from the systems, the people said. HHS officials assume that it was a hostile foreign actor, but there is no definitive proof at this time.

HHS did not immediately respond to request for comment. White House and National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shira Stein in Arlington at sstein51@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.