German hospital community Katholische Hospitalvereinigung Ostwestfalen (KHO) has confirmed that latest service disruptions at three hospitals have been brought on by a Lockbit ransomware assault.
The assault occurred on Saturday within the early morning of December 24, 2023. It severely impacted the programs that assist the operations of three hospitals in Bielefeld, Rheda-Wiedenbrück, and Herford, Germany.
“Unknown actors have gained entry to the programs of the IT infrastructure of the hospitals and have encrypted information,” reads the machine-translated announcement from the hospital.
“A primary check confirmed that it’s most likely a cyberattack by Lockbit 3.0, the decision time of which is presently unforeseeable.”
“For safety causes, all programs have been shut down instantly upon discovery, and all mandatory events and establishments have been knowledgeable.”
Right now, investigations are underway, and the extent of the harm and if the attackers stole information have not been decided but.
The next three hospitals, which KHO operates, have been impacted by the cyberattack:
- Franziskus Hospital Bielefeld – 614 beds, ten specialist departments, 390 medical doctors and employees
- Sankt Vinzenz Hospital Rheda-Wiedenbrück – 614 beds, 5 specialist departments, 200 medical doctors and employees
- Mathilden Hospital Herford – 614 beds, eight specialist departments, 230 medical doctors and employees
The above hospitals play a crucial position in offering healthcare providers of their respective areas, so a cyberattack impacting their IT programs may have dire repercussions for individuals in medical emergencies.
KHO’s announcement clarifies that affected person remedy continues as regular within the impacted hospitals, and all clinic operations stay obtainable, albeit with some technical restrictions. Important affected person data stays accessible by way of the profitable restoration of backups.
Nevertheless, emergency care is unavailable within the three KHO hospitals, so individuals urgently needing medical care are diverted elsewhere, presumably leading to crucial delays.
On the time of writing, the Lockbit ransomware gang hasn’t added KHO to its extortion portal on the darkish internet, so whether or not or not the cybercriminals stole affected person information or different delicate data hasn’t been decided but.
