Cyber Attackers Strike Fear Into Romanian Hospitals

The SRI, whose investigation into the attacks is still underway, believes the criminals behind the attacks are from China. Marincea previously told local media that "the times in which the hackers were active" and the traces they left in their messages to their victims pointed to that scenario.

One of the targeted hospitals is the Dimitrie Castroian Municipal Hospital of Husi, in northeastern Romania. Its manager, Lucia Rotaru, told the media last week that the centre had lost part of its data.

"On April 21, the server was attacked and encrypted. The data was lost. We haven't fully solved [the problem] yet," he said. The attack took the hospital by surprise, Rotaru added, saying the hospital could not repel it despite having "a security system in place".

The Romanian National Computer Security Incident Response Team, CERT-RO, the SRI and a private cybersecurity company, Bitdefender, have issued advice to hospitals to help them deal with further attacks.

"Don't open files received via email unless you know the sender," the advice reads. It warns against "irresistible promotions" in emails and recommends having all files backed up offline and an antivirus program installed. The Ministry of Health has sent the advice to all medical units in the country.

With more than 500 million users worldwide, Romanian anti-virus developer Bitdefender is one of the sector's leaders. It collaborates with the Romanian authorities and with Interpol in preventing and investigating malware attacks.

Security agencies and private cyber companies warned earlier of the country's vulnerability on the internet. In April, the National Cyberint Center, which is part of the SRI, warned of possible cyberattacks on the IT systems of public institutions during...