Ransomware hit, in successive waves during the night from Sunday to Monday, several dozen hospitals in Romania. The cyberattack is paralyzing many children’s and emergency services across the country.
In Romania, hackers have caused nationwide mayhem. On Wednesday, around a hundred hospitals in the country were still directly or indirectly paralyzed by a ransomware attack that occurred on the night of February 11 to 12, 2024. The Romanian National Directorate of Cybersecurity (DNSC) spoke of an attack on “ the production servers on which its computer system runs “. Unfortunately, the numerous stolen files were encrypted by the hackers, who are demanding large compensation to put an end to the woes of Romanian hospitals.
25 hospitals formally affected by the cyberattack, 79 others disconnected from the Internet while investigating
On Tuesday, authorities in the country confirmed that data from 25 hospitals was accessed and encrypted by hackers. A colossal figure, inflated by 79 other hospitals which, according to the Romanian Minister of Health, were purely and simply disconnected from the Internet, the time to understand whether or not they were also victims of the same ransomware. Meanwhile, everyone has taken a leap back in time, with paper and pen returning 100%.
The situation is currently untenable. Thousands of medical appointments and operations have been canceled or postponed. This is an attack that is reminiscent of that suffered in the United Kingdom in 2017, where more than 80 hospitals were disrupted by a computer attack of the same type.
Different types of establishments are paralyzed today: hospitals, clinics, oncology institutes, emergency hospitals, children’s wards, institute of cardiovascular diseases and others.
Hackers demand 160,000 euros from victim establishments
Although Romanian cyber authorities have identified the type of malware used, they have no idea of the group responsible for the attack. What is certain is that the authors of the cyberattack are demanding a ransom, and that this rises to 3.5 Bitcoins.
Or a little more than 160,000 euros, according to the current price of the cryptocurrency. The hackers provided affected establishments with an email address which is currently their sole point of contact.
As for the operation of the services, all is not doom and gloom for the establishments affected, which are in the habit of backing up the data on their servers very frequently (between 1 and 3 days for most hospitals). A good reflex which will allow easier and faster restoration of services and data, even if the attack will inevitably leave traces, and for a long time.
Source : DNSC
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