The Alsatian Saint-Vincent hospital group targeted by a computer attack

Another French health group is also the victim of a computer attack. The Saint-Vincent Hospital group, the first private group in this sector in Alsace, was the victim of a cyberattack in the middle of last week. After the computer intrusion, detected around 22 o’clock, the hospital group decided to turn off its IT to switch to a degraded mode, as reported by Rue89strasbourg and Numerama.

Pencil and paper

More precisely, the computer attack targeted the information systems of the Vincent-de-Paul Foundation, the guardianship of the hospital group. As a result, all employees were invited to return to work armed with pencils and sheets of paper. The group operates about thirty establishments, including four clinics, pediatric establishments and others intended for the elderly.

The precise modalities of the attack are unknown. The latter has not been claimed, for the moment, by one of the franchises of cybercriminals customary to this kind of malicious actions. According to the health group, no data exfiltration has been detected – investigations are underway to confirm this point. Likewise, the computer attack would not have had any consequence on the continuity of care and the reception of patients. However, the foundation stressed that due to the incident, the pick-up time could be longer.

Long list

The organization also reported the incident to the Regional health Agency and to Anssi, the French cyber-firefighter. She has also filed a complaint with the Strasbourg Prosecutor’s Office. The Alsatian hospital group thus joins the long list of French hospitals attacked, more than a year after the computer wreck of the South Francilian Hospital Center of Corbeil-Essonnes, victim of a ransomware cyberattack at the end of August.

Most of the attacks deplored since then, however, ended in a shutdown of the hospitals’ computers on time, preventing the attackers from looting the data and laminating the information systems. Last December, the government responded by launching a cyber incident preparedness program, a measure that succeeded an initial envelope of 20 million euros intended to strengthen the IT security of health facilities.