Pierluigi Paganini
March 06, 2023
On Sunday, a ransomware attack hit the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, one of the main hospitals of the Catalan city. The attack crippled the center’s computer system, 150 nonurgent operations and up to 3,000 patient checkups were canceled due to the cyber attack.
The hospital hospital is diverting new urgent cases to other hospitals in the city.
“The hospital’s press department said that all written work was being done on paper and that the hospital was diverting new urgent cases to other hospitals in the city.” states the Associated Press.
A local cybersecurity agency revealed that the attack was launched by a ransomware group known as Ransom House.
The ransomware infected the computers at the facility’s laboratories, emergency room and pharmacy at three main centers and several external clinics.
At this time it is unclear when IT staff at the hospital will be able to recover the impacted systems.
“We can’t make any prediction as to when the system will be back up to normal,” hospital director Antoni Castells told a news conference today.
The Catalonia’s Cybersecurity Agency is working with the hospital to restore the infrastructure.
At this time the ransomware gang behind the attack has yet to demand the payment of a ransom.
Regional government telecommunications secretary Segi Marcén said that no ransom would be paid by Spanish authorities.
The authorities are investigating into the security breach, the hospital did not explain if it has suffered a data breach.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, ransomware)
