Heartless Hackers Crippled Hospital Patients

Crippling Ransomware Prevents Surgical Procedures

Following a $10 million ransomware attack, a French hospital was unable to access the files of its patients, and had to transfer them to other local health facilities.

Due to the malicious cyber attack linked to the callous dark web hackers, the Medical fraternity had blasted the latest ransomware attack, as these types of harmful attacks can affect the lives of some severely ill individuals.

According to the recently reported hacking incident, the 1000-bed Center Hospitalier Sud Francilien (CHSF), became the victim of one of the most vicious ransomware attacks of 2022.

The French hospital is located about 28 kilometers from the heart of Paris, and primarily offers health services to people in need of medical attention. In addition, it was reported that the healthcare organization serves about 600,000 residents seeking from primary to critical care attention.

The unfortunate event, according to medical officials could have had dangerously catastrophic results, as an interruption in CHSF’s operations, or any other medical establishments could risks the health, and even lives of people in need of urgent medical care.

Postponed Surgeries

With the hospital being hijacked by criminal hackers, among the patients that were referred to other health facilities were individuals that were scheduled for surgical procedures, which hospital staff stated had to be postponed until a later date.

According to a released statement from CHSF, the hacking attack on its computer network corrupted the hospital’s business software. And affected its patient’s record storage systems, which affected, in particular; its medical imaging facility. Also, the information system responsible for recording the admission of patients was temporarily inaccessible.

So far, the hospital’s management has not released any information, if the $10 Million ransom was paid to the ransomware hackers. However, it was announced that the medical facility is still being plagued by IT system failure, which has prompted its staff to further curtailed medical operations at the facility.

For now, the hospital had implemented the best possible protocol to deal with the devastating incident, with the doctors at CHSF only assessing patients who require emergency care. In addition, they will transfer patients to another medical facility, if their diagnosed condition requires a medical imagining facility.

Le Monde, which facilitates information from law enforcement agencies in France, reported that the ransomware hackers that hijacked the CHSF computer network demanded $10,000,000 in ransom. And with successful payment, CHSF would receive the decryption key that would unlock the corrupted hospital files.

The Paris prosecutor’s office reported that an investigation launched by the center that fights against digital crime (C3N), includes an intrusion into the private computer system, and the attempted extortion by an organized gang of criminal hackers.

LockBit 3.0 Hackers

This latest ransomware attack was first reported by the French cybersecurity journalist; Valéry Riess-Marchive. According to the investigation launched by the national gendarmerie service, it deals with Rangar Locker and LockBit attacks; it also has the capability to recognize indicators of a LockBit 3.0 infection.

According to Riess-Marchive at LegMagIT, the hacking group associated with Ragnar Locker is unlikely to be responsible for this ransomware attack, since these criminals place different emphasis on the size of its victims’ economies. Meanwhile, the LockBit 3.0 ransomware is most likely responsible for the recent hack, as this group of hackers exhibits a wider targeting scope.

The RaaS forbid the encrypting of the systems of healthcare providers. Therefore, if LockBit 3.0 launched this recent ransomware attack on CHSF, it will be a grave violation of the program guidelines.

So far, the recent ransomware attack on the CHSF medical facility has not been attributed to a specific group of dark web hackers. Also, the threat actors behind the LockBit 3.0 extortion site, haven’t yet claimed responsibility for the life threatening ransomware hack.