France: third cyberattack against a hospital in less than a month

In France, hospitals have become prime targets for cyber attacks (photo illustration).

© REUTERS / Kacper Pempel / Illustration

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In France, the Oloron-Sainte-Marie hospital has been paralyzed since March 8 by hackers.

A ransom of several thousand dollars is demanded. 

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After Dax in the Landes and Villefranche-sur-Saône in the Rhône, Oloron-Sainte-Marie is the new victim of hackers.

The hackers launched an attack that paralyzed the entire hospital, located near Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

This is a

"ransomware"

attack

, malicious software

that renders files on the institution's computer system inoperable.

A ransom of $ 50,000 in

bitcoins

, an encrypted virtual currency, is demanded by hackers to unblock the situation.

Hospitals, a prime target

For now, most of the data related to patient health information is inaccessible.

However, the phone is still working.

To prevent the situation from worsening, all computing devices were unplugged. 

A complaint was filed and the cybercrime unit of the gendarmerie went to the site, alongside agents from the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi), the French gendarme of cybersecurity in the territory.

But the establishment, which employs 600 people and can accommodate more than 300 patients, is now idling.

This third attack on a French hospital in less than a month confirms that they have become a privileged target since the start of the health crisis.

According to an Anssi report, " 

the attack probably makes it easier for hospitals to pay the ransom given the critical need for business continuity

 ."

► (Re) listen: Cyber ​​attacks: how far will the threat go?

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