The southern Ile-de-France hospital center (CHSF), located in Corbeil-Essonnes, was the victim of a massive cyberattack this weekend. Since the deployment of this ransomware, the establishment’s services have been completely paralyzed. According to the management of the CHSF, the pirates demand the payment of a ransom of 10 million dollars to lift the blockade.
This week-end, the South Ile-de-France hospital center (CHSF), located in Corbeil-Essonnes, was targeted by a ransomware cyberattack on its network overnight from Saturday to Sunday. In any case, this is what the management of the establishment announced in an official press release published on Monday August 22, 2022.
So far, this ransomware attack has paralyzed all of the hospital’s business softwaredata storage systems (including medical imaging) and the information system used for patient admission.
Shortly after the detection of the attack, the hospital activated its white plan (emergency plan decreed by the director or the person in charge of a public health establishment) and the National Authority in matters of security and defense of information systems (ANSSI) was seized.
Experts were mandated immediately to intervene quickly on the network targeted for “identify the source of the attack, analyze its perimeter on our network and secure backups”, assures the CHSF in its press release.
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Hackers demand $10 million ransom
Size precision: the hackers demanded the payment of a ransom of 10 million dollars to lift the blockade. “A procedure was immediately put in place by the Regional Health Agency (ARS). This is not the first health facility attacked in this way. We will therefore be able to rely on what has already been done. In any case, it would be counterproductive to pay this ransom”, summarizes Medhy Zeghouf, Chairman of the CHSF Supervisory Board.
As reported by our colleagues from Parisianpatients whose care required access to the technical platform (scanner, MRI, X-ray, etc.) been referred to other public hospitals in Ile-de-France. And for those who present themselves to the emergency room, they are first examined before possibly being directed to the CHSF medical on-call centre.
“The establishment makes every effort to maintain the ambulatory care of its patient under the required safety conditions. On the other hand, this exceptional situation should have an impact on the activity of the operating room, closely articulated with that of the technical platform. Each patient concerned will be individually informed of a possible deprogramming and the consequences envisaged to ensure continuity of care with the assistance of the hospitals in our region”. concludes the CHSF.
As said above, this is not the first time that French hospitals have been targeted by ransomware or computer attacks. In 2019, ransomware paralyzed 120 French hospitals, causing the postponement of hundreds of operations across the country. According to a study published in 2021, these cyberattacks drastically increase the mortality rate in the hospitals targeted.
