Over 100 Romanian hospitals downed by ransomware attack

Forbes reports that more than 100 hospitals across Romania have been taken offline following a ransomware attack against the Hipocrate IT platform on Sunday, which was confirmed to have impacted a quarter of the downed health providers. While there has been no indication of any data compromise, threat actors behind the intrusion have demanded $100,000 worth of Bitcoin as ransom, according to Romania's National Cybersecurity Directorate, or DNSC, which warned impacted health providers against transacting with the attackers. Affected hospitals have also been urged by the DNSC to isolate compromised systems, which should be restored using data backups upon remediation. Such an intrusion comes amid the growing prevalence of cyberattacks against health systems, noted KnowBe4's Javvad Malik. "Responding to such attacks requires a coordinated effort, not just in the immediate technical response, but in long-term strategies such as building a strong security culture to bolster resilience against future attacks. Cybersecurity is not just an IT issue; it's a fundamental component of patient care," Malik added.