One of the top hospital in Spain, becomes victim of RansomHouse ransomware

Hackers from outside of Spain are responsible for the sophisticated and intricate assault that was launched against the Hospital Clnic de Barcelona.


Because of the sophisticated and comprehensive cyberattack that the  Barcelona  Hospital has received, it has been forced to cancel all appointments  planned for this week and the non-urgent procedures. Also, it has postponed the oncological radiation sessions because of the cyberattack that it suffered, which has caused certain services to be reassigned to other hospitals. 

Since yesterday, personnel from the hospital and the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia have been working together in an effort to restore regular operations at the facility. This information was provided in a statement released by the Generalitat.

It is common knowledge that the RansomHouse organisation is responsible for it. While the RansomHouse organization has not yet made contact with the victim, it has been made abundantly plain that no monetary compensation would be paid from Catalonia.

On this particular Monday, all of the urgent and hospitalization activity of all of the Clnic locations — Villarroel, Plató, and Maternitat — will be shutdown. Additionally, home hospitalization, day hospitals, the radiology service, endoscopic tests, radiological examinations, dialysis, and the outpatient pharmacy will all continue to operate as usual.

On the other hand, the attack on the computer system has necessitated the postponement of scheduled oncological radiotherapy sessions and the deprogramming of 150 non-emergency surgical procedures, as well as between 2,000 and 3,000 external consultations, 500 extractions, and other related procedures.

The hospital will continue to transfer patients with urgent diagnoses to other medical facilities, such as those indicating a stroke or heart attack.

The laboratory, the pharmacy, and the emergency services have all been disrupted as a result of the cyberattack, and as a result, these departments have collaborated with the Department of Health and the other hospitals in the city to handle urgent codes, medical transport, and other emergency situations.

The cyberattack that occurred at the Hospital Clinique affected a number of computer systems, one of which was the emergency computer system. Although the emergency computer system’s service has not been shut down, for operational reasons it has referred patients to the emergency services of other hospitals. Those patients who were already at the hospital this morning have been cared for.

The vast majority were older folks whose records were missing, making it impossible to get in touch with them by phone. Patients who understood, given the circumstances, that the consultation could not be carried out and who regretted the fact that hackers attacked a hospital, the health of citizens such as Patrocinio who recriminated hackers through COPE microphones, expressed their regret that the consultation could not be carried out “We paid this place a visit, but we took away nothing from it. Everything does not function, including the computers, the analytical tests, the medical examination, and everything else you can think of. They shouldn’t be attacking the hospitals; why don’t you give them something better to do?”

Enrique is a medical student who completes his internship at the Clinic. He said that “they can’t work” since the computer system at the Clinic is inoperable and the majority of consultations take place in outpatient clinics.

It is the third time that hackers have targeted hospitals in Catalonia; these attacks may have extremely serious consequences, as was shown with the attack on the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the ramifications of which lasted for an entire year.