The Rouen University Hospital-Charles Nicolle in northern France has been targeted to a ransomware attack with consequences similar to that of the infamous WannaCry attack of 2017. IT staff discovered the attack late on the evening of November 15th, and Rouen University Hospital claims that it impacted all five sites the hospital complex covered. To prevent the spread of the ransomware infection, IT staff closed down the systems. Rouen University boasts 10,000 staff and 25,000 beds and may have been the largest hospital targeted by a ransomware attack since WannaCry. As of this Monday, the hospital IT was still operating in degraded mode, and it will likely take over a week to restore systems with the help of the French National Agency for Information Systems Security.
It’s too early to know what ransomware strain or who carried out the attack, rumors spread that the perpetrator was demanding $1,660 to decrypt data per each 6,000 computer impacted. However, the hospital stated that no ransom request had been received. Although no patient data seems to have been affected, there have been inevitable and costly delays in patient care.
Read More: Infection Hits French Hospital Like It’s 2017 As Ransomware Cripples 6,000 Computers
