Ransomware Attack Disrupts Operations at Barcelona Hospital

A ransomware attack targeting one of Barcelona’s largest hospitals has disrupted systems and forced cancellation of hundreds of medical procedures. The attack against Hospital Clinic de Barcelona occurred was first detected on Sunday.

Shortly after reporting the attack, the hospital stated that they will only be able to proceed with 10% of medical appointments and some non-urgent procedures, Infosecurity Magazine reported.

Takeaway: Ransomware operators continue to demonstrate zero concerns about the collateral damage caused by their attacks. In a case like this, where the delivery of medical care gets disrupted, they're quite literally putting people's lives at risk. It's hard to fathom why we would continue to see ransomware attacks as purely an IT security issue.

Often, these criminal groups operate as proxies whose attacks serve two purposes. The first is financial gain and the second is to instill fear and create uncertainty. Clearly, current strategies are insufficient to defend against this threat. If we want to break this near-constant ransomware attack cycle, we must take a different approach. Healthcare organizations continue to be a top target for ransomware attacks, not just because the nature of their operations increases the likelihood of a quick payout, but also because attacks like this terrify the public.

Everything the staff and patients at the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona are currently experiencing highlights the dire need for healthcare and other critical infrastructure organizations to do everything they can to ensure daily operations continue regardless of ruthless attacks like this. Robust detection and prevention capabilities are necessary, but we know attacks can get through those defenses. Resilience from the endpoint to across the entirety of an organization's operations has never been more paramount than it is today in the face of this ransomware scourge.

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Halcyon.ai is the industry’s first dedicated, adaptive security platform that combines multiple advanced proprietary prevention engines along with AI models focused specifically on stopping ransomware – talk to a Halcyon expert today to find out more. And check out the Recent Ransomware Attacks resource site to get near real-time tracking of ransomware attacks, threat actor groups and their victims.