The French hospital was forced to postpone procedures after a cyberattack.

A serious event has occurred in France: the Simone Veil Hospital, located in Cannes, fell victim to a cyberattack, forcing its staff to revert to traditional methods of document management and suspend medical procedures. This incident affected many aspects of the institution's operations, which provides a wide range of medical services to local residents and those in surrounding regions. The hospital has over 800 beds and employs more than 2,000 staff members.

Due to the attack on the hospital, the administration was forced to shut down all computers; however, the phone lines were functioning without interruption. In an official statement on the institution's website, it was noted:“Current cyber attack! All non-urgent consultations must be canceled.”As a result of this turn of events, all operations and consultations scheduled for this week that were not of an urgent nature have been postponed.

The hospital is currently investigating the incident in collaboration with ANSSI (National Agency for the Security of Information Systems), Cert Santé, Orange CyberDéfense, and GHT06. It is worth noting that, at this time, no ransom demands have been received, and the fact of a data breach has not been confirmed. The official statement says:“On Tuesday morning, a cyberattack occurred at CHC-SV.

Functioning of the service

The hospital confirmed that emergency services, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, geriatrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, and rehabilitation continue to operate as usual. The management of the institution noted that they had never encountered such a type of cyberattack before. Cyber risks are one of the main threats listed in the hospital's risk map, and in recent months, drills have been conducted that helped respond effectively to the situation.

Normalization of activities

According to the message,“The normalization of operations will depend on the technical investigation and the need to restore the functioning of the systems.”The press release also mentions that the experience of other medical institutions that have been subjected to cyberattacks shows that the recovery process can take a considerable amount of time.

Previous incidents

We remind you that this is not the first case of cybercrime in the country's medical institutions. In December 2022, the Medical Services Center in Versailles was subjected to a similar attack, which affected the ability to perform surgeries and necessitated the transfer of some patients to other hospitals. In August 2022, the Southeast Paris Hospital Center fell victim to a ransomware attack, which also caused disruptions in the operations of emergency services and surgeons, forcing staff to redirect patients to other medical facilities. Media reports indicated that the attackers demanded a ransom of 10 million dollars for the key to decrypt the data. Such incidents highlight the importance of security in the healthcare sector and the need to continuously improve protective measures to prevent cyberattacks.