Computing systems at a number of Israeli hospitals were attacked late Wednesday night, but no substantial damage was caused, according to the National Cyber Security Authority.
Fifty computers at eight different hospitals were attacked using a virus, but hospital functioning wasn’t disrupted, the authority said.
Cyber authority official Rafi Franco stressed that the number of computers hacked was marginal, considering that Israeli hospitals use hundreds of thousands of computers and that no information was stolen.
“We identified anti-virus system alerts in some hospitals,” said Franco. “We saw the security systems blocking injuries, so we brought a team in cooperation with the Health Ministry to the area.
These are computers whose anti-virus system has yet to be updated. No damage was done and no information was stolen from the 50 hacked computers, but they were disconnected from the network for safety. There was no shutdown or a decrease in the ability of any hospital’s functioning.”
Franco added that the authority was investigating the incident. “We still don’t know the source of the attack, but our assessment is that it’s not a targeted attack against Israel.”
