French Rouen hospital hit by a ransomware attack

The University Hospital Center (CHU) of Rouen was hit by the malware last week, the ransomware had a severe impact on the operations during the weekend.

The AFP news agency reported that a ransomware attack on a hospital in Rouen last week caused “very long delays in care.”

Medical staff at the hospital were not able to use the PCs and servers that were crippled by ransomware, they returned to the “old-fashioned method of paper and pencil.”

The management of the hospital did not reveal details of the attack such as the family of ransomware that hit its systems and the way it infected them.

The good news is that there were no consequences for patients, their medical and personal data have not been exposed as a result of the infection.

“State services are mobilized at the bedside of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Rouen. The establishment was struck Friday by a cyberattack that has severely disrupted its operation throughout the weekend.” reported the French newspaper Le Monde.

“Sign of the seriousness of the situation, the prosecutor of Paris, competent at the national level for the fight against cybercrime, opened an investigation on Saturday, announced the latter to the World .”

The specialized section F1 of the prosecutor’s office for cyber attacks targeting a state computer system launched an investigation along with the support of the specialized cybercrime unit of the national police and the regional judicial police department (SRPJ) of Rouen.

The National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI) also sent agents to assist CHU staff in the investigation of the incident and restore the operations by cleaning the systems at the Rouen hospital.

The Rouen hospital announced it would not pay any ransom to decrypt the files.

Hospitals continue to be exposed to cyber attacks, in November 2017 Hospitals of the National Health Service (NHS) network were paralyzed by a malware attack.

In May 2017, the massive WannaCry  more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries, including in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

Recently, several hospitals in the US and Australia were infected with ransomware, including an Alabama hospital chain, the Brooklyn Hospital, and the Campbell County Memorial Hospital.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Rouen hospital, ransomware)

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