Some of the largest hospitals in Victoria, Australia have been hit by a ransomware attack. The hospitals have decided to disconnect systems from the Internet to prevent the ransomware infection from spreading.
"Our priority is to restore all affected systems and prevent any further breaches," a Victorian government spokesman said.
The disconnection of the systems has created some problems, as the systems that contain patient records have been affected. At the same time, the schedule of doctor-patient meetings has been disrupted. Some efforts have been made to get hospitals to use “manual” systems, to the extent possible, in order to continue their work and serve patients.
"The affected hospitals are working to correct the issues with programming to reduce the impact on patients. However, they currently do not have access to files, charts, images and other information.
According to the government spokesperson, the ransomware attack affected the Gippsland Health Alliance and South West Alliance of Rural Health hospitals.
Research so far has shown that the ransomware has not affected patients' personal information, but it has blocked some key systems, such as those that manage finances.
“The incident, which was revealed on Monday, prevented access to various systems, including financial management systems.”.
The Victorian Government is working with services , police and the Australian Cyber Security Centre to investigate and address the problem.
Security experts believe it will take days, perhaps weeks, for the network.
ABC Radio Melbourne reported that the attackers were able to bypass security and controls used to protect hospital networks and computers, allowing them to infect systems with ransomware.
Authorities said they would continue the investigation to uncover anything related to the attack.
