NICE, FRANCE – “Mafia-like groups” are likely behind a series of recent ransomware attacks targeting French hospitals, the country’s Digital Affairs Minister Cédric O said today.
Asked by France 2 about recent attacks that paralyzed the IT systems of some hospitals, O said that those behind them were “apparently not foreign powers, but mafia life groups, often but not only from Eastern European countries, looking for money. ”
Dax hospital in southwestern France was hit by a ransomware attack on February 9, which encrypted its data and forced workers to use pen and paper. On February 15, a similar attack hit a hospital in Villefranche-sur-Saône, near Lyon. The attacks used Ryuk ransomware, designed to lock down computer systems, with hackers demanding cryptocurrencies as a reward for their hacking.
French President Emmanuel Macron last week pledged encouragement for the cybersecurity industry in response to the attacks.
In his interview, O said that there were currently no indications that any data had been stolen during the attacks, but “things happened very hard and bad.” Hospital emergency wards had to suspend new patients and their medical imaging services and telephone networks went down.
The digital minister also referred to another health care-related cybersecurity incident: the dissemination of patient data from a series of biochemical laboratories, affecting 500,000 patients. The company and the French data protection authority have been in contact, but the company does not appear to have contacted patients, O said.
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