The ransomware has caused serious damage to the primary care of three hospitals. Patients in need of urgent treatment had to be referred to other hospitals.
Hackers attacked the IT systems of three hospitals on Christmas Eve in Germany. Patients in need of urgent help will have to be referred to other hospitals for the time being. All Over Press
In Germany, the IT systems of three hospitals were attacked on Christmas Eve with ransomware.
The German hospital network Katholische Hospitalvereinigung Ostwestfalen (KHO) has confirmed that the recent service disruptions in the systems of these hospitals were caused by the Lockbit ransomware.
The attacks are still being investigated, and the extent of the damage is not yet known, says the technology publication Bleeping Computer. For example, it is not known whether the attackers have stolen data from the systems.
The attack took place on Christmas Eve morning, December 24. It had a serious impact on the information systems supporting the operation of three different hospitals. The three hospitals operated by KHO that were attacked are Franziskus Hospital Bielefeld, Sankt Vinzenz Hospital Rheda-Wiedenbrück and Mathilden Hospital Herford.
The hospitals employ a total of 820 people, and have a total of more than 1,800 beds and 23 special departments.
According to one hospital’s press release, “unknown actors have gained access to the hospitals’ IT infrastructure systems and encrypted their information. The first test showed that it is probably a Lockbit 3.0 cyber attack, the resolution time of which is currently unpredictable.”
Lockbit malware belongs to the category of extortion malware and is specially designed to extort ransom from companies and organizations.
The release went on to say that “all systems were shut down immediately after the attack was detected for security reasons. All interested parties and institutions were informed about this.”
The threat to emergency patients can be serious
Hospitals affected by this attack play a critical role in providing health services in their regions, so a cyber attack disrupting their operations could pose a serious threat to patients in emergency situations.
In these three hospitals, primary care or emergency care cannot be offered at the moment. People who urgently need healthcare are referred to other hospitals, which potentially causes critical delays.
However, the KHO confirmed that the treatment of patients in these hospitals continues as normal, and that all the procedures in the clinics are still available, although there may be some technical limitations. Indispensable patient data is accessible due to the successful restoration of backups.