Hospitals in the province of Luxembourg targeted by a major computer attack
The computers of hospitals and rest homes of the intermunicipal Vivalia are currently blocked but patient safety is guaranteed
By Belga
LThe inter-municipal health care company Vivalia suffered, during the night from Friday to Saturday, a “large-scale” computer attack which led to the blocking of 200 servers and 1,500 computers in the hospitals and rest homes of this active structure in the province of Luxemburg. The consequences of this computer hacking were thought to be felt for some time yet, but the safety of patients in hospitals managed by the intermunicipal company is guaranteed, assures Vivalia officials.
The cyberattack was detected shortly before 3:30 a.m. Very quickly, it was decided to take emergency measures to prevent the spread of the computer virus. All internet communications with the outside were cut, as well as computers and servers attacked, all running under the Windows operating system. This concerns a total of 200 computer servers and 1,500 computer workstations. An emergency cell was convened immediately and the intermunicipal company quickly received the support of the governor of the province of Luxembourg and the Federal Judicial Police as well as police cybersecurity experts.
“We are currently in the second phase. We are trying to identify the origin of the attack to plug the security breach before restarting, or even restoring, our IT systems,” explained Yves-Henri Serckx, IT director of Vivalia, Saturday afternoon during ‘a press conference.
Vital services are guaranteed
In the meantime, the cyberattack has consequences for the functioning of hospitals, but these seem to remain manageable. “The vital services of hospitals are preserved”, reassuring the managers of Vivalia.
According to Dr. Pascal Pierre, Director General of Medical Affairs, “all the equipment in the intensive care units is working, as are the dialysis machines. The devices in the operating theaters are also functional, as are the emergency rooms and the coronary angiography devices. On the other hand, the general telephone center of the Vivalia hospitals is no longer accessible, but the direct numbers allowing you to reach this or that service are.
Currently, nursing staff no longer have the means to consult a patient’s computer prescription file. “Fortunately, there are backup systems to print out the treatment the patient is to receive. We will have to go back to paper and pen, ”continues Doctor Pascal Pierre.
Origin and motivation unknown
The origin of the cyberattack and the motivations of the hackers could not yet be clarified at this stage. For the moment, Vivalia has not received a ransom demand. Also at this stage, there is no indication that personal data of patients or residents of nursing homes has been stolen. “A priori, this attack was intended to paralyze our activity,” said Yves-Henri Serckx.
In recent years, several Walloon hospitals have been victims of cyberattacks, such as the Wallonia Picardy Hospital Center in Tournai (ChWapi), at the start of 2021, or the André Renard clinic in Herstal, in 2019. In some cases, a ransom demand of 5,000 euros per computer server had been claimed.
Vivalia includes six hospital sites, a polyclinic, four nursing homes and nursing and care homes, a psychiatric care home and three crèches, located in the province of Luxembourg.