NOTICE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES to our Providers and Vendors:

NOTICE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES to our Providers and Vendors:

 

On May 18, 2021, the State of Alaska, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) issued a press release which identified the dhss.alaska.gov website as the target of a malware attack.  DHSS is working with an outside contractor and law enforcement to evaluate the scope of this attack. That evaluation is on-going.  We wanted to assure you as partners of DHSS that we have taken every recommended action to continue operations, protect our systems, and avoid the possibility of further disruption, including taking our department website offline while this incident is being investigated. 

DHSS is also diligently working to ensure protection of confidential information and the continued processing of benefits and claims.  Investigators are working to determine if any personal or confidential information has been compromised. 

DHSS will be in contact with any provider if it is identified as being directly affected or impacted by this cyberattack. We have also provided notice to our federal partners of this event.  We will update our partners with information as it develops and we are able to share.  Due to the nature of this attack we may be unable to communicate as much as we like or answer all of the questions you have, but we are working 24/7 to determine what happened and why, and to prevent further service disruption.

As you note from the press release, in addition to our website being brought down, certain systems have been taken offline. These actions impact internal DHSS operations more than external operations, but if one of your programs is listed you will receive direct notification from that division on how operations are going to continue while the system is offline.

The state is working hard to restore those systems so that all operations can resume as quickly as possible. However, there is no certain timeline and it is possible that other systems may need to be taken offline.  We will keep you informed of our efforts and notify you if any other systems are taken offline as soon as we are authorized to do so.

For phone assistance during business hours (8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.), please contact the department at 907-269-7800 or download a detailed list of contacts for divisions, sections and programs.

 

 

 

 

*Providers, please forward this message to staff you would link Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Email or Text Update you would like to self-register for DBH Communications messages.