The Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Saint-Pierre in Brussels is the latest victim of a spate of cyberattacks targeting European hospitals.
Ambulances were diverted from the hospital following the attack in the early hours of Friday morning. CHU Saint-Pierre’s chief executive, Pierre Leroy, told Belgian newspaper Le Soir that the hospital had an emergency plan “specifically established for this type of situation” following previous attacks on other hospitals in Belgium.
While the hospital managed to disconnect its servers and restart them by Saturday afternoon, the servers remain disconnected from the internet, said Leroy.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, and the hospital’s website was unavailable on Monday.
Leroy confirmed that there has been no theft or leak of medical data so far, but the hospital remains cautious.
The attack on CHU Saint-Pierre follows another cyberattack on CHU Brest in France on March 9. In its statement on March 10, the university hospital said that “no health data leak has been identified,” and emergency services are continuing to be provided.
The hospital also disconnected its IT system from the internet, meaning patients could not make new appointments and staff were unable to consult medical imaging or send test results to other establishments.
In another recent incident, thousands of appointments were canceled after a ransomware attack on the city of Barcelona’s main hospital.
The regional Catalonian Cybersecurity Agency said that the Ransom House gang was responsible for the attack, which also affected other hospitals in the area.
These attacks highlight the growing threat of cyberattacks on healthcare institutions, which can disrupt critical patient care services and put patient data at risk.
