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French Hospital Crippled by Ransomware

Written by Stu Sjouwerman | Nov 21, 2019 11:55:03 AM

Patient care at a large hospital in northern France has suffered considerably after a major ransomware attack at the weekend, according to local reports. The University Hospital Center (CHU) of Rouen was hit by the malware last Friday and severely disrupted all weekend, with national investigators called in.

A communications director from the hospital, which has over 1300 beds and 8000 staff, told AFP that the incident had forced staff back to using pen and paper. “This resulted in very long delays in care, even if there was no danger to the health of hospitalized patients," he’s reported as adding. 

The incident has echoes of the WannaCry attack of 2017 which severely affected the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). An investigation into the outages claimed it led to the cancellation of an estimated 19,000 operations and appointments, affecting around a third of trusts in England. Full story by Phil Muncaster at InfoSec Magazine,