In recent weeks, several hospitals, already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, have been subject to cyberattacks. When questioned by EUROPE, the European Commission stated that it is working with the relevant European agencies to monitor these threats and coordinate efforts to respond to them.
On Tuesday 24 March, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said via Twitter: "With the coronavirus, cybercrime and the number of fake medicines is increasing. Criminals take advantage of our fears".
And for good reason, in recent weeks, several hospitals have been the subject of ransomware, software that takes data hostage and demands a ransom. For example, on Sunday 22 March, Parisian hospitals and a network of Spanish hospitals were the targets of such attacks, presented as information related to the coronavirus. The week before, a hospital in Brno, Czech Republic, was targeted.
Hospitals are considered by the Network Security Directive (2016/1148) as essential service operators. They must therefore apply technical and organisational risk management measures and notify incidents where they are the victim.
Monitoring of these measures is mainly the responsibility of the Member States, while information can be exchanged at European level via the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) network, which is supported by the European Cybersecurity Agency.
Asked about the number and type of attacks recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the Commission referred to a press release of 20 March, in which the institution states that "the relevant EU entities are in close contact with one another to track these malicious activities, raise awareness in their respective communities and help protect confined citizens". (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)