Another case of healthcare hacking place on November 15. The French hospital (Hôpital Charles-Nicolle de Rouen) was the victim of an attack using ransomware. Cybercriminals’ actions affected all five of the hospital’s facilities, which is about 6,000 computers. Staff had to shut down the systems and work manually to prevent further spread. In order to maintain communication between employees and various hospital services, healthcare workers had to return to the old-fashioned methods and use pen, paper, and phone instead of email. According to media reports, personal information of patients was not affected, but the attack resulted in delays in healthcare delivery.
Earlier, it was reported that the attackers demanded a ransom of €1.500 thousand for unlocking each computer, but this information was denied. By the evening of November 18, more than a quarter of the affected medical programs had been restored and launched.
We would like to remind you that 10 medical institutions – 3 in the USA and 7 in Australia – have recently suffered from ransomware attacks. U.S. clinics were forced to completely stop their work, and Australian clinics were forced to switch to « manual control ».