Cyberattack Forces Closure Of Unm Hsc And Suspension Of Classes Research Through Tuesday

UPDATE (11:59 p.m. 10/26/26): The following statement was shared by UNM HSC at 10:27 p.m.:

"Information technology security teams continue working to resolve the cybersecurity event affecting UNM Health Sciences Center. All UNM Health hospitals (UNM Hospital and SRMC) are open, and all clinics will resume regularly scheduled appointments and procedures Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. Classes at the UNM School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and College of Population Health are canceled Tuesday. Classes at UNM’s Central and branch campuses are not affected. Nonessential employees at the UNM Health Sciences Center are asked to remain Tuesday. Essential and clinical employees, along with students with clinical responsibilities, should report to their usual work or clinical locations."

The article as it was originally published continues below.

The University of New Mexico Health System suffered a cybersecurity attack Monday, resulting in all students and non-essential personnel at the Health Sciences Center being told to evacuate campus for the remainder of the day.

Ambulances were diverted from UNM HSC and the Sandoval Regional Medical Center to other hospitals and “all appointments at all clinics today have been cancelled,” according to a UNM Health Sciences press release .

The hackers responsible for the attack reportedly broadcast a message to hospital workers’ computers, according to audio shared first by KOB4 that features a voice likely generated by a text-to-speech engine. In the recording, which does not contain the full message as it was broadcast, the voice asks that administrators “immediately” the attackers on Session, an encrypted messaging service, before threatening to “rape your university to the ground to the point of no operation, heavy lawsuits and risk of closure.”

“We have all of your student and employees’ data, personal identifiable information and SSNs, private documents, emails and much more,” the voice says. The authenticity of the recording or its claims have not yet been confirmed by UNM officials, but a physician at UNMH told the Daily Lobo that their computer did play the message.

The physician also provided the Daily Lobo with a copy of a message healthcare workers received from administrators at 12:07 p.m. following the attack, urging them to turn off and unplug their desktop computers, disable the Wi-Fi on mobile devices and continue work using paper forms.

HSC notified state and federal law enforcement of the attack and engaged “external partners” to assist with the investigation and UNM HSC academic and research units will remain closed tomorrow, according to HSC News .

UNM Health temporarily limited acceptance of new patients from 12:30-2:30 p.m. as a response to the event, and a LoboAlert was sent out at 2:29 p.m. stating that UNMHC would be closed for the remainder of the day due to a “tech-related issue.”

“We recognize this event may have impacted patients, employees and students, and we appreciate their patience as our teams respond,” reads an HSC News update posted at 6:08 p.m. “We understand there are many questions. Because this remains an active law enforcement investigation, we are limited in what we can at this time.

Questions emailed to UNM Health Sciences representatives surrounding specific communication with the attackers and law enforcement agencies, as well as the extent to which student, faculty and patient information has been compromised, were not answered in time for publication.

The hack comes just over a month after a report from cybersecurity experts revealed that a UNM Libraries system was repeatedly attacked by a rogue AI agent created by OpenAI in an attempt to obtain a photograph in the University’s Valmora collection. The report says that the attack, which was carried out through a number of different methods, was unsuccessful.

When asked the UNM Libraries attack during an introductory press conference, UNM President Steve Goldstein said the University was “diligent cybersecurity,” and called their response to the report “an ongoing process of vigilance.”

Elliott Wood is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @elliottinabq