BRUSSELS, March 11 () –
The San Pierre University Hospital Center in Brussels has been the object of a computer attack at dawn this Saturday for which it is not known if a ransom has been requested.
Around 1:00 a.m., the servers began to slow down, which put the computer technicians on duty on alert, reported the Belgian newspaper ‘Le Soir’.
“Very quickly they were able to detect abnormal activity on the computer network and around 4:00 they came to the conclusion that the worst thing was that we were victims of a cyberattack,” explained the hospital’s executive director, Philippe Leroy.
The intervention of the specialized services of the federal police and the Public Ministry has allowed the application of an emergency plan provided for this type of situation.
“As several hospitals have already been targeted by hackers, we have put a procedure in place to be able to keep the hospital active as much as possible,” Leory said.
These procedures imply the disconnection of servers and the return to paper communication within the hospital. “The devices in the operating rooms or those necessary for the patients are not affected, so hospital activity functions normally,” added Leroy.
“As a precaution we are currently diverting ambulances to other nearby centers, but if someone comes to the emergency room, we are perfectly capable of taking care of them. The main problem with communication on paper is that it slows down the activity, but certainly does not prevent it. The whole team is in his post and we are managing things calmly”, he stressed.
“At the moment we have no indication of any theft of patient data (…). All planned consultations and hospitalizations are maintained. The delivery sector is also operating normally, although at this time we prefer to send high-risk deliveries to nearby hospitals,” he added.
The Hospital Clínic de Barcelona suffered a ransomware-type cyberattack on Sunday, March 5, for which the group responsible has already requested a reward. To date, the center is still working to recover its normal activity.
