14 March 2023

A hospital in Brussels hit with a cyberattack


A hospital in Brussels hit with a cyberattack

A university hospital in Brussels has become the latest victim in a series of cyberattacks that have targeted European hospitals in recent months.

The attack hit the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Saint-Pierre last week, the French-speaking newspaper Le Soir has reported.

According to the hospital's CEO Pierre Leroy around one o'clock in the morning from March 10 to March 11 the computer servers of the CHU Saint-Pierre had began slowing down.

“Our specialists were able to detect abnormal activity on the computer network,” Leroy said, adding that several hours later it became clear that the hospital was the victim of a cyberattack.

The official said that the hospital had an emergency plan “specifically established for this type of situation” following previous attacks on other hospitals in Belgium. Due to the attack staff were forced to switch to working with paper records, but the hospital managed to disconnect its servers and restart them by Saturday afternoon, he said. However, ambulances and medical vehicles are being diverted to neighbouring establishments out of precaution.

An investigation into the incident is still ongoing. Hospital’s officials said that at present there’s no indication that any data was compromised in the attack.

Last week, the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, one of Barcelona main hospitals, was hit with a ransomware attack that crippled the facility’s computer system used by numerous laboratories, clinics and emergency room. Due to the attack 150 nonurgent operations and up to 3,000 patient checkups were cancelled.


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