German IT services provider Bitmark, one of the largest service providers for German health insurers, has shut down its customer and internal systems following a cyberattack.
In an advisory posted on its temporary website the company said that “according to the current state of knowledge,” no customer, patient, or insured individuals' data had been stolen in the incident.
Bitmark hasn’t provided the information on the nature of the attack, citing ongoing investigation.
It’s also unclear when all Bitmark’s systems will be back up and running.
“Even if Bitmark is gradually providing services again for the first statutory health insurance companies and some statutory health insurance companies are hardly affected by the disruptions, there will continue to be considerable restrictions in day-to-day business for the foreseeable future,” the company warned.
“This is due to the fact that in some cases entire Bitmark data centers were taken offline, individual services may have to be shut down again and the restarting of individual services is associated with renewed temporary service failures. In order to fully restore normal operation, emergency solutions must also be switched back to normal operation, which can lead to short-term service failures,” the IT giant explained.
The company said it informed the relevant authorities of the security breach and brought in external security experts. Bitmark is also working closely with its customers, the Federal Ministry of Health, associations, Gematik (the German national agency for the digitalization of the healthcare system), and other players in the healthcare market to process the incident.