France’s Hospital Centre of Versailles has canceled its regular surgeries after unknown hackers took down the hospital systems. France’s health ministry has confirmed the cyber the attack on the hospital. The hospital group closed their operations across all facilities, including the Andre-Mignot Hospital, Richaud Hospital, and the Despagne Retirement Home.
The hospitals began transferring some of their patients after confirming that the computers started malfunctioning because of ransomware. According to RFI’s website, the attackers behind the ransomware have also started demanding ransom.
Richard Delepierre, co-chairman of the establishment’s supervisory board, acknowledged the ransom demand and reiterated that the facility will not pay any amount to the hackers. The ransom amount still needs to be clarified at the time of publishing this report. The regional health agency (ARS) told French media that operations at the Andre-Mignot Hospital had been canceled but that other services remained operational post the attack.
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Heathcare and ransomware attacks
In the last couple of months, European nations have become the next big target by hackers, creating a hotspot for new hacking campaigns every few weeks. In August 2022, a similar indecent happened with CHSF hospital in Corbeil-Essonnes, in southeast Paris, where a ransomware gang attacked the hospital and left it struggling to provide proper services to the patients and demanded a ransom amount of $10m
However, the latest attack forced six patients from the hospital to be transferred and caused several other complications within the facility. The hospitals are yet to recover from the attack, and speculations suggest that more patients will be transferred to other medical facilities.
Minister of Social Affairs and Health of France Francois Braun, who visited the facilities on Monday, said the machines were still functioning in the intensive care unit, but more people were needed to watch the screens as they were no longer working as part of a network, reported AFP.
As France’s law doesn’t allow public establishments to pay the ransom, several threat intelligence companies has joined forces to mitigate the situation between at the hospital facilities. No particular group has claimed the attack at the time of publishing the report.
