One of Barcelona's main hospitals has experienced a ransomware cyberattack, causing its system to shut down and forcing the cancellation of 150 non-urgent operations and 3,000 patient checkups.
(Photo : Cesc Maymo/Getty Images)
BARCELONA, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 11: Doctor Pedro Castro, a doctor at the ICU of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, speaks on the phone on November 11, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain, Clinic Hospital's ICU Unit has a capacity for 48 beds and half of it is occupied by patients with coronavirus.
Cyberattack in Barcelona
Hospital Clinic de Barcelona was cyberattacked on Sunday, March 5th. Associated Press reported that the attack shut down computers at the hospital's laboratories, emergency room, and pharmacy at three main centers and several external clinics.
Hospital Director Antoni Castells stated that they are still unable to give a date or any prediction as to when the system will be back to normal. Through the hospital's contingency plan, the healthcare workers would be able to function for several days as they hoped that the system would be back to normal as soon as possible.
As per Regional Government Telecommunications Secretary Segi Marcen, the hackers still had not made any ransom demand towards the hospital or any person related to this matter where he also clarified that no money would be paid.
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Contingency Plan
Additional health assistants and administrative staff were added to the hospital to decrease the impact of the attack. Bleeping Compter reported that this would help the facility bridge communication between several departments in the hospital. Meanwhile, radiology, endoscopic tests, radiological scans, dialysis, and outpatient pharmacy services are operating normally.
The hospital is currently in "all-written work" where the operating things are done on paper as the attack cut off access to patient records and communication between units. The press department of the hospital also stated that they are diverting other cases that are considered urgent to other hospitals in the city temporarily.
Aside from the 819-bed hospital that serves half a million people who seek medical needs, the cyberattack also impacted the emergency services of three medical centers associated with Clinic Barcelona. This includes CAP Casanova, CAP Borrl, and CAP Les Corts.
Ransom House
The region's Cybersecurity Agency is currently working on the system to restore, as per a Catalonia regional government statement. As per Tech Monitor, "Ransom House" was the name of the attacker that was believed to come outside of Spain, and launched in May last year as a data extortion marketplace.
The attacker claims that they are not using ransomware in their attacks. However, they were recently linked to the WhiteRabbit ransomware encryptor where numerous ransomware attacks happened. This includes ShopRite, ADATA, and eight municipalities in Italy.
As of the moment, the Ransom House data leak website has not yet released any data belonging to the hospital as it might be too early for this to happen.
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