Fairfield Memorial Hospital joined hospitals across Illinois Wednesday, November 4th in one of the state’s largest emergency preparedness exercises designed to test how healthcare facilities would respond to a sophisticated cyberattack involving artificial intelligence.
The statewide exercise, organized by the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, was titled “Broken Trust: AI Takes Control.”
The drill simulated a cyberattack in which criminals used artificial intelligence to create fraudulent communications appearing to come from hospital employees while disrupting critical healthcare systems.
The simulated attack included interruptions to hospital communications, loss of access to electronic medical records, and AI-generated changes to connected systems.
The exercise challenged participating hospitals to respond to the threats while maintaining patient safety, protecting sensitive information, and ensuring the continued delivery of essential healthcare services.
Fairfield Memorial Hospital officials said the exercise provided an opportunity for its multidisciplinary team to strengthen organizational decision-making, cybersecurity preparedness, emergency response procedures, and workforce stability.
The drill comes as healthcare organizations nationwide face increasing cybersecurity threats.
According to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, healthcare continues to experience the highest average cost of data breaches among industries.
The report found that approximately one in four organizations experiencing a malicious data breach encountered an attack involving artificial intelligence, representing a 56 percent increase over the previous year.
Deepfakes and impersonation tactics were among the most common AI-related attack methods, accounting for 45 percent of those incidents.
IBM also reported that AI-driven cyberattacks can move faster and operate on a larger scale, potentially adding approximately $1 million to the cost of a breach.
Healthcare ranked fifth among industries for the percentage of malicious or criminal attacks, with transportation recording the highest share.
Hospital officials say exercises such as Wednesday’s statewide drill are important for identifying potential vulnerabilities, strengthening emergency response plans, and preparing employees to respond effectively to cyber threats.
The exercise was a simulated emergency and did not involve an actual cyberattack at Fairfield Memorial Hospital.
The training was intended to help ensure hospitals throughout Illinois can maintain critical operations and protect patient care in the event of a real cybersecurity incident.