Following the ransomware attack on the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera on Wednesday, the National Cyber directorate fears that additional Israelis hospital could be attacked, Channel 13 News reported.

The attack on Hillel Yaffe, a major hospital that treats hundreds of thousands of patients, was the biggest ever cyberattack on an Israeli health system, crippling the hospital and forcing it to shut down its IT systems. The patient registry system was affected as well as the hospital’s electric doors but the biggest problem has been the dispensation of medication since it is entirely computer-controlled.

Doctors and nurses have been forced to revert to using pen and paper to document vital information and treatments have been delayed as doctors waste time walking from one department to another to see test results. MDA paramedics have been instructed to take patients to other hospitals and all elective procedures have been canceled.

The hackers may have successfully stolen a large amount of confidential patient information from the hospital’s system but the scope is still unclear.

Meanwhile, all hospitals across the country are on high alert and have taken any non-essential systems offline.

Health Ministry officials said that there is no evidence that it is a security-related attack. By Thursday, the attackers contacted the hospital to begin negotiations on a ransom payment. It is believed that the attack was carried out by a new group of hackers who recently targeted a US hospital.

Israeli security officials not only fear additional ransomware attacks on hospitals but also fear that Iranian hackers could potentially carry out a cyberattack disconnecting critically ill patients from life support machines.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)