Yinon Ben Shoshan

28/10/2021

Thursday, 28 October 2021, 09:56 Updated: 10:37

Apparently: China is responsible for the cyber attack on Hillel Yaffe

Sources in the cyber world estimate that a group of hackers attacked the hospital out of economic and not security motives.

Cyber ​​expert: "This is no longer an issue of privacy concerns. The implications should bother us all."

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Hillel Yaffe Medical Center (Photo: Reuven Castro, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center)

According to information received from cyber sources, the attack on Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera about two weeks ago was carried out by a large and well-known group of hackers operating from China.

According to them, this is an attack on an economic background and not on a security background.

The hospital was hit by a ransomware cyber attack - and has not yet returned to full function since.

The teams at Hillel Yaffe are working on reinstalling the computer systems, as repairing and restoring the data is expected to take many more days, and it already appears that a lot of damage has been done to the information stored in the computers.

Currently, the hospital continues to operate properly because all the equipment works routinely, but the Ministry of Health asked Laniado Hospital in Netanya to back Hillel Yaffe and asked MDA to refer the mild and moderate patients to it, so that very few critical patients reach Hillel Yaffe.

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The hospital has not yet returned to full function (Photo: Courtesy of those photographed, Ben Shabbat)

"The issue of the identity of the attackers has been investigated by cyber researchers and Unit 443, but the implications should bother us all," said Mae Brooks-Kempler, cyber expert and founder of the online safe community THINK SAFE CYBER, in a conversation with Walla! Technology. This is no longer an issue of concern. "For privacy or economic harm, such an attack on a hospital could harm both the quality of medical care and, potentially, human life."

"Managers need to understand that no organization is too large or small to become a victim of a cyber attack. Preliminary assessments are key to minimizing the potential for harm, and increasing the ability to recover from an incident, if realized," Brooks-Kempler adds.

According to information received by Walla! Last week, the Ministry of Health's cyber center was unmanned on the night of the break-in. The likelihood is that if he had been manned that night, the burglary of the hospital computers could have been prevented and stopped.

"No organization is too big or small to be the victim of a cyber attack" (Photo: ShutterStock)

The cyber center of the Ministry of Health is connected to all the computer systems of all the hospitals and its role is to provide them with protection from attacks.

The center's goal is primarily to protect the life-saving computerized equipment found in hospitals so that hackers cannot disrupt the operation of respirators or dialysis pumps and cause widespread death, so its importance is paramount.

Over the past two weeks, additional burglary attempts have been made at ten hospitals across the country, most of them government hospitals, where defense systems are less good.

All these attempts were halted, and the work of the hospitals continued as usual.

The Director General of the Ministry of Health, Professor Nachman Ash, asked the hospital directors in a special meeting to show maximum vigilance and print all the critical material for the treatment of patients.

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