The collective Vice Society is at the origin of the cyberattack carried out on October 9 against the maternity hospital of the Bluets. This group of hackers regularly targets hospitals, unlike other hackers who oppose touching healthcare facilities.
The hacker group Vice Society claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on the Bluets maternity hospital on October 18. The establishment, crippled by ransomware, has five days to pay an undisclosed sum by the authorities, in which case the hackers will upload all the data taken hostage. The hospital has about fifty beds and provides several thousand births each year.
According to information from the JDD, the maternity unit has been strongly impacted since the cyberattack which occurred on October 9: the establishment is forced to reduce its reception capacity, the centralized monitoring systems of the vital functions of babies in utero having been rendered inoperative by the attack. The administration makes it known that certain consultations, in particular in PMA, would also be canceled.
A group specializing in the public sector
The group Vice Society is of Russian origin, like many hacker collectives specializing in ransomware. Active for nearly two years, this gang of hackers targets public establishments, including hospitals, unlike other groups of criminals who refrain from attacking health establishments. According to a report by cyber researchers at Sekoia, 26.1% of the victims listed on their data breach site are education-related entities. One in ten attacks targets a hospital for this gang. Vice Society has already hit the health sector in France, paralyzing a hospital center in Arles a year ago. To date, the group already has 88 victims.
In September, the cyberattack against the Corbeil-Essonne hospital, led by the Lockbit group, highlighted the weaknesses of the hospital IT system in France. The refusal to pay the ransom being the rule in force in the public service, the hackers had ended up publishing the data of the patients.
