The Government announced this Wednesday, December 21, the launch of a “broad preparation program” of health establishments against cyberattacks after the Corbeil-Essonnes and Versailles hospitals have been victims of major computer attacks in recent months.
“The goal is for 100% of the highest priority health establishments to have carried out new exercises by May 2023,” explained the Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, of Health François Braun and the Minister Delegate for Digital in a joint press release. Jean-Noël Barrot.
“A digital white plan will be drawn up in the first quarter of 2023 to provide establishments with the reflexes and practices to adopt if a cyber incident occurs”, such as the activation of a crisis cell or the assessment of the damages caused by hackers, adds the press release.
This plan must allow “pooling the competent resources at the level of each region in relation to the Regional Health Agencies (ARS)”. A “task force” has also been created responsible for building a massive new draft multi-year cyber plan by March 2023.
A thousand attacks in 2021
The Sud Francilien Hospital Center (CHSF) in Corbeil-Essonnes in August and the Versailles Hospital Center (CHV) in early December were victims of cyberattacks via Lockbit ransomware, seriously affecting their activities and forcing them to transfer patients to other hospitals.
In 2021, a thousand ransomware attacks were registered in France, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and around 260,000 cyber-related legal proceedings were opened (+20% compared to 2020).
During attacks against public bodies, the “constant position” of the State is not to pay ransoms, the ministers recall.
Source: BFM TV
