Aug 22 — Southeast of Paris, the CHSF Hospital Centre in Corbeil-Essonnes revealed that it has been a victim of a cyber attack. The attack began on Saturday night, and has thus far led to a hacker demand for $10 million.

The attempted extortion and the breach of the hospital’s computer systems are both under investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office. According to officials, the investigative efforts are being conducted by the police’s Center for Combating Digital Crime (C3N) division.

Hospitals and cyber attacks

For several months, French hospitals have been under fire from cyber criminals. In April, the computer systems belonging to nine of the hospitals in France’s Grand Est region also experienced ransomware attacks.

In 2021, several other French hospitals faced disruptive cyber attacks that could have resulted in serious real-world patient harm.

CHSF’s attack in Essonne

On Sunday, in the wake of the hack, the CHSF hospital in Essonne, which retains a 1,000 bed capacity in order to provide care for a local population of 600,000, enacted its “white plan” emergency contingency program. The goal was simply to ensure that health services could still be provided effectively.

According to the hospital, the attack rendered all business software and storage systems, including medical imaging, entirely inaccessible. The system responsible for storing data related to patient admissions was also inaccessible.

As a result, new potential hospital patients have been redirected to other public hospitals in the IIe-de-France region. For patients who are currently hospitalized in the CHSF medical and technical services are currently functioning, but in a “degraded” mode.

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