How the presence of paper saved the hospital from an information disaster.
The Simone Weil Hospital in Cannes (CHC-SV) faced a cyberattack that disrupted the facility and forced staff to switch to using paper for record keeping.
CHC-SV is a major health facility in France, especially in the Cannes region, and provides a wide range of medical services with 2,100 employees, including 230 doctors. The 869-bed hospital sees 150,000 patients on an outpatient basis each year, and performs 9,000 operations, including delivering babies.
The hospital management said that at the beginning of the week it was necessary to turn off all computers due to a cyber attack, leaving only telephone systems for communication. The incident is currently being investigated. Details of the attack are not disclosed, but it is indicated that ransom demands, as well as facts of data theft, were not recorded.
The hospital continues to provide medical services, but data management is now done manually. Some patients are redirected to other hospitals. About 30% of all non-urgent surgical procedures scheduled for this week were canceled, and many non-urgent consultations were postponed to a later date. Consultations that do not require the use of computers to maintain or access historical data and analysis results are conducted as usual.
The hospital representative noted that CHC-SV had never experienced such a cyberattack before, but recent cybersecurity training has played a key role in localizing damage and mitigating the consequences of the incident.
Currently, the priority for CHC-SV is to restore patient data recording systems, including test results and medical records. However, this depends on the progress of technical investigations, which may take a long time.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the CHC-SV attack.
The Simone Weil Hospital in Cannes (CHC-SV) faced a cyberattack that disrupted the facility and forced staff to switch to using paper for record keeping.
CHC-SV is a major health facility in France, especially in the Cannes region, and provides a wide range of medical services with 2,100 employees, including 230 doctors. The 869-bed hospital sees 150,000 patients on an outpatient basis each year, and performs 9,000 operations, including delivering babies.
The hospital management said that at the beginning of the week it was necessary to turn off all computers due to a cyber attack, leaving only telephone systems for communication. The incident is currently being investigated. Details of the attack are not disclosed, but it is indicated that ransom demands, as well as facts of data theft, were not recorded.
The hospital continues to provide medical services, but data management is now done manually. Some patients are redirected to other hospitals. About 30% of all non-urgent surgical procedures scheduled for this week were canceled, and many non-urgent consultations were postponed to a later date. Consultations that do not require the use of computers to maintain or access historical data and analysis results are conducted as usual.
The hospital representative noted that CHC-SV had never experienced such a cyberattack before, but recent cybersecurity training has played a key role in localizing damage and mitigating the consequences of the incident.
Currently, the priority for CHC-SV is to restore patient data recording systems, including test results and medical records. However, this depends on the progress of technical investigations, which may take a long time.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the CHC-SV attack.
