A cryptovirus has completely paralyzed the operations of a hospital in the Czech city of Benešov, about 40 kilometers southeast of Prague.
The virus attacked the hospital system starting on Tuesday night this week but the hospital’s network is still locked. Computers first began to slow down at the surgical clinic, and shortly thereafter, the IT systems in the entire hospital stopped working. The virus overcame the hospital’s firewall as well as two antivirus systems.
Hospital management announced that patients’ health and lives are not at risk, although IT workers and cybersecurity experts have not been able to remedy the problem as of Thursday.
As a result of the attack, no devices work in the hospital, and all planned operations had to be canceled. Many patients had to be transferred to other facilities in cooperation with ambulance services. The only exception was several births that were already underway, which meant it was not possible to postpone them, but all children were born without complications.
In general, the hospital says it will still admit all women who need their children delivered.
Otherwise, the hospital urged patients to seek help elsewhere. Hospital administrators are now working closely with one of Prague’s hospitals, which is receiving patients from Benešov and its surroundings while the hospital’s network remains locked.
Police, as well as the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, are investigating the incident.
Cybersecurity experts worry that in the worst case, the hospital may be blocked for several weeks.
