It was a nightmare for a hospital. In the midst of a burning corona crisis, with test laboratories for specific coronavirus samples, the University Hospital in Czech Brno had to stop operations this spring and redirect emergency patients. The hospital had suffered a so-called ransomware attack. They mean that attackers lock the computer systems and demand money to, at best, unlock them.

Peter Gramantik, himself an IT security expert, witnessed the whole thing. He was taken for surgery when speakers called out the call to all staff: shut down all computers and networks. Soon afterwards, the message came that all operations were canceled, including Peters.

- I got angry, he says on the phone to SVT News.

- Not afraid, although I understand that others will be afraid. It is an attack and it is in the concept of attack that something is bad.

Well-known example

The attack on the hospital is just a well-known international example when it comes to cyberattacks against care during the corona period. European cooperation body Europol warns against attacks against critical infrastructure.

- By critical infrastructure I mean hospitals and grocery stores, says Europol manager Caterine De Bolle.

- This is infrastructure we really need to cope with this crisis.

But Sweden then? The authority for social protection and preparedness. MSB, is responsible for monitoring and receiving reports of IT attacks against socially important activities. There, however, one does not want to comment on the matter, citing privacy.

Asked the regions

In order not to burden healthcare, SVT Nyheter has chosen to ask the regions responsible for healthcare via their IT departments. Most people reply that they have not seen any particular trends but some say they have seen increases and Jönköping replies that they have seen a "sharp increase" in the attempts to infringe. However, no region says that the intrusion has been successful or affected the systems.

David Lindahl at the Total Defense Research Institute (FOI), which has compiled foreign examples, still says that there are reasons to believe that the same threats exist in Sweden as well.

- You try to trick ordinary people into taking a measure that seems reasonable but which leads to an unsafe situation. There, Sweden does not differ from other countries.