In Barcelona, the city’s largest hospital, which has had a massive amount of data stolen, faces a large ransom demand to recover it. “We will not pay a penny” responds the management.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office seized on Friday of the worrying computer attack which has been the victim since Thursday March 9 of the Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) of Brest, whose operation has been affected. According to the management of the establishment, the latter has been operating since “in degraded mode, but no data leak has been identified”.
The computer intrusion occurred Thursday “at 8:33 p.m.” and “servers were impacted” recognizes management. This malicious action is not without consequence: “The hospital is not able to offer tele expertise, teleconsultation or appointment booking” via the internet, explains the CHRU. Revealed by France Info, the referral to the cybercrime session of the Paris prosecutor’s office shows that this is not a trivial attack.
Closure of emergencies in Brussels
Especially since several other European hospitals have been victims of this same phenomenon in recent days. In Brussels, the computer servers of the CHU Saint-Pierre slowed down overnight from Friday to Saturday March 11, indicates the Belgian daily The eveningand emergency measures were taken: closure of the emergency department, suspension of the emergency number and disconnection of all servers.
An effective procedure: the emergency department was able to reopen this Sunday. Again, the Belgian federal service seized of the investigation did not give more information, nor revealed if a ransom demand had been formulated. But in Barcelona, for more than a week, the Hospital Clinic, the centuries-old university hospital center, which houses the faculty of medicine in the center of the Catalan capital, has been struggling with a large-scale computer attack.
“It’s a sophisticated attack”
“It’s a sophisticated and complex attack, which does not use traditional techniques” acknowledged in a press release the Generalitat of Catalonia on March 6. According to the Catalan media, the hackers have managed to get their hands on a massive amount of data: more than four terabytes of information, which however does not concern the medical information of patients.
Here again, the hospital reacted by limiting its digital activities as much as possible, returning to paper processing of all admissions, which greatly slowed down its activity, and had a strong impact on scheduled operations, says ElNacional.cat. According to the hospital, 90% of urgent surgeries, 40% of routine operations and 70% of outpatient consultations were carried out this week.
A ransom of 4.5 million dollars demanded
On Friday, the hackers made known their demands to the Hospital Clinic, to return the stolen data: the payment of a ransom of 4.5 million dollars. “There will be no negotiations, we will not pay a cent,” said Sergi Marcén, the Catalan Minister of Telecommunications and Digital, in a press conference. The authorities, however, admitted that under these conditions, the risk of seeing this data leaked on the internet was high, and requested the help of Interpol to move the investigation forward.
But the hospital’s efforts focus above all on restoring normal functioning, perhaps as early as Tuesday: “The professionalism of our health teams is beyond doubt,” declared Antoni Castells, the medical director of the establishment.
