A cyber attack has largely paralyzed the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, one of the largest and most important hospitals in the Spanish metropolis. Because of the attack, 150 operations and around 3,000 patient appointments had to be canceled on Monday, the clinic management and spokesman for the Catalan regional government announced on Monday afternoon. In addition, among other things, the radiation treatments for cancer patients were all canceled. Urgent interventions would continue to be carried out, and the emergency room was also in operation in the university hospital, it said.
The attack took place on Sunday, said the Catalan secretary for telecommunications and digital transformation, Sergi Marcén. It was complex and carried out from abroad. The police of the region of Catalonia, the Mossos d’Esquadra, have already initiated investigations together with Europol and Interpol. According to the first findings, the hackers also tapped patient data, but everything is still being analyzed, emphasized Marcén.
The head of the Catalan authority for cyber security, Tomàs Roy, suspects the criminal hacker group “Ransom House”, which is known for ransom demands, to be behind the attack. However, no claim has yet been received. Catalonia will not negotiate with the criminals and also “not pay a single cent”, Marcén was quoted as saying by the newspaper “La Vanguardia”.
