UNM Health diverts ambulances and closes clinics after cybersecurity event

UNM Health Sciences Center diverted ambulances and canceled appointments across its clinic network Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, after what it called a cybersecurity event affecting the whole health sciences enterprise. UNM Health spokesperson Chris Ramirez said patients should not come to UNM Health facilities that day: “UNM Health patients should not show up to UNM Health facilities on October 26. Emergencies should be handled by 911 and non-emergencies should be delayed until further notice.”

The Associated Press reported that the system has more than 30 clinics, conducts about 900,000 outpatient visits and 100,000 emergency room visits each year, and operates New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma center. The threat was not university-wide and affected only the Health Sciences Center, according to UNM main campus spokesperson Steve Carr.

From 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., UNM Health temporarily limited its acceptance of new patients and canceled outpatient surgeries and appointments through the rest of Monday, a UNM Health Sciences Center newsroom update said. At 2:30 p.m., the system started bringing systems back online in stages as conditions allowed. The update credited health systems in Albuquerque and Santa Fe with helping keep patients safe while UNM was diverting them.

Presbyterian Healthcare Services, another major New Mexico provider, said it was coordinating with UNM Health and had already taken additional patients. The university did not immediately describe the nature or extent of the event.

UNM dismissed nonessential employees and canceled classes on the Health Sciences campus. The newsroom update said academic and research units on the Health Sciences campus will remain closed Tuesday, with no classes of any kind, including online or remote sessions. Workers at UNM Hospital and UNM Medical Group are expected to return Tuesday, while students with clinical duties should report to their assigned locations.

KOB 4 reported that officials had not confirmed a message it obtained, in which an automated voice said: “Contact us on Session immediately before we bring 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 same report said employees’ screens were replaced by an image of a red skull with the words “Oh no, you have been compromised.”

The newsroom update said the health sciences center’s IT security teams moved to contain the incident and alerted state and federal law enforcement, while also bringing in outside partners to help investigate. Officials said they are actively working to resolve the issue and are limited in what they can share because the case is under active law enforcement investigation.

Update, October 26, 2026

UNM Hospital has resumed accepting all levels of trauma patients after Monday's cybersecurity event, a hospital spokesperson told ABQ RAW. Chris Ramirez, director of communications for UNMH, confirmed that the hospital is again able to take Level I trauma cases, the report said. UNMH is New Mexico's only Level I trauma center. A UNMH media advisory also said patients would be contacted to reschedule appointments and procedures missed during the outage, according to ABQ RAW.

Update, October 28, 2026

An extortion group calling itself BYOD claims on a leak site to have broken into 36,000 computers across UNM's main campus and hospital network and to have taken rosters from the Cerner electronic health record system, according to a Help Net Security report cited by Medical Daily. The claim has not been independently verified. UNM has not stated whether patient records were affected or whether ransomware was involved, and the university has blamed an active law-enforcement investigation for the limited information it has released.