The Swedish Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten) shut down SmiNet, the country's infectious disease database, on May 27 after it was repeatedly targeted by hackers. SmiNet, which is also used to store electronic reports with statistics on COVID-19, was shut down on May 27 to investigate the attacks, and came back online on the afternoon of May 28.
The agency stated on May 27th the following: “The Swedish Public Health Agency has discovered that there have been several attempts to hack the SmiNet database. Therefore, the database has been temporarily closed. Work is underway to investigate as soon as possible whether anyone may have gained access to sensitive personal data from the database, and to resolve and correct any deficiencies.”
Read also: Conti ransomware also targeted the Irish Ministry of Health!
The Swedish Public Health Agency has not been able to report full COVID-19 statistics as of 4 p.m. on May 26 due to the database being closed. Additionally, while the investigation into the hacking attempts continues, no further information will be released.
Although no evidence has been found so far to prove that unauthorized parties gained access to sensitive information, the investigation will take at least a few more days.
See also: Hackers targeted Ireland's public health system (HSE)
The agency reported on May 31 : “The investigation into unauthorized access to sensitive information is ongoing. The incident has been reported to the Police and the Personal Data Protection Authority. More time is needed to ensure that the statistics are complete, so that a reliable assessment of the epidemiological situation can be made. Thus, the next update of the statistics on COVID-19 cases will be on Thursday, June 3.”
The Swedish health information service 1177 was hit by a data breach two years ago after the company that managed its storage server exposed it to public access on the Internet. This resulted in the leakage of callers' personal information.
Suggestion: FBI: Links Conti ransomware to 16 attacks on major US organizations
Additionally, the Irish Department of Health (DoH) and the HSE (Health Service Executive) healthcare system were recently breached by the hackers behind the Conti ransomware.
According to the FBI, the Conti ransomware gang also attempted to compromise the networks of more than a dozen US healthcare organizations.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
