Three hospitals in Germany were hit with ransomware attacks on December 24 that caused service disruptions and forced the facilities to shut down their entire IT systems.
The three impacted hospitals are Franziskus Hospital in Bielefeld, Sankt Vinzenz Hospital in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, and Mathilden Hospital in Herford.
According to the Catholic Hospital Association of East Westphalia (Katholische Hospitalvereinigung Ostwestfalen, KHE), an unknown threat actor gained access to the hospitals’ IT infrastructure and encrypted data.
“For security reasons, as soon as it became known, all systems were shut down that night and all necessary people and institutions were informed,” the organization said.
Initial checks suggest that the Lockbit ransomware group was behind the attack. At the time of writing, there is no mention of KHE on the gang’s dark web leak portal.
According to officials, due to the attack, “the clinic continues to operate with slight technical restrictions, but we have withdrawn from emergency care for safety reasons.”
The responsible authorities have been informed of the incident and the IT security experts are working to determine the extent of the damage, officials said.
Earlier this week, the Rhysida ransomware group claimed to have hacked the Abdali Hospital in Jordan and to have stolen a trove of sensitive data, which they are offering for sale for a price of 10 bitcoin.