The management of the French Student Health Foundation (FSEF), which manages thirteen French non-urgent care clinics for young people aged 12 to 25, said on Tuesday April 20 that they were the victim of a cyberattack.
Specifically, the health group has been the victim of ransomware: a malicious program by which hackers encrypt the files of a computer system into which they have entered to render it inoperative. This software then demands a ransom from the targeted companies if they wish to regain access to their computers and their computer network.
No delays in care
Ransomware (ransomware) which struck the FSEF made most of the foundation’s patient health data inaccessible, Vincent Beaugrand, its managing director, told Agence France-Presse – which forced healthcare teams to return to rudimentary means of operation, with paper and pencil.
These clinics provide psychiatric or rehabilitation care, but no emergencies, surgery or resuscitation. Many of them are located in Ile-de-France, but also in other departments, such as the Alpes-Maritimes.
Mr. Beaugrand, however, assured that none of this data had been stolen by the hackers and that this attack had “No impact for [les] patients’ of the FSEF: “No change” was, according to him, necessary in their care in recent days in the group’s clinics. Access to “Priority tools” of the 2,700 employees should be restored by ” weekend “, he said, adding that the backup systems had not been blocked, which allowed caregivers to access certain patient files.
The FSEF, which detected the attack on the night of Thursday April 15 to Friday April 16, reported it to the National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI), before filing a complaint at a Paris police station. .
A government plan
In recent months, healthcare establishments have been the victims of computer attacks at a rate that tends to get carried away. Friday April 16, a private hospital group in Hauts-de-France was also the object of a ransomware attack; on April 9, it was a Haute-Garonne hospital that was targeted.
These hospitals, laboratories or platforms, which manage sensitive data, have become privileged targets since the health crisis. In February, the Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O, mentioned “Twenty-seven cyber attacks on hospitals in 2020, one per week since 2021”, while President Emmanuel Macron has pledged a billion-euro plan to strengthen the cybersecurity of health services.