Romanian Hospital Struck by Ransomeware Demanding Bitcoin

• Hackers had compromised the servers, encrypted the data, and posted a message.
• A criminal inquiry has been initiated as per the head of operations.

From December forward, hackers blocked access to the digital medical records of the Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital in Botoşani, Northeastern Romania. And demanded payment in crypto for unlocking them.

Local news source Monitorul de Botoşani claimed on Tuesday, citing the English-language website Romania Insider, that hackers had compromised the servers, encrypted the data, and posted a message demanding 3 BTC (almost $50,000 at current exchange rates) as a ransom.

Criminal Inquiry Initiated

The article pointed out that the assault has been well-planned. Experts from the Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender and the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism were unable to decipher the data.

The head of operations at the hospital. Dr. Cătălin Dascălescu, has confirmed to the media that a criminal inquiry has been initiated. Without giving any further information, he continued, “We hope to resume medical activity at normal capacity from Monday.”

Due to the hacking, the hospital will not be able to submit its reports for the last month of 2022. And collect the funds due to it.

The National Health Insurance House of Romania has announced, however, that they are working on a solution that would enable medical professionals to be paid. Those responsible for maintaining the computers are suspected of being the entry point for the hackers’ remote access.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Romania has experienced this kind of attack. Four similar hospitals in 2019’s summer were likewise attacked. After the Covid-19 epidemic, hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the United States were targets of ransomware attacks.