Victorian hospitals infected by ransomware

Victoria’s public health system has fallen victim to a ransomware attack affecting a number of hospitals across the state.

The attacks on hospitals and health services in Gippsland and Southwest Victoria have affected a number of servers, blocking access to several systems in use within the areas.

The Victorian Cyber Incident Response Service said it has worked with hospitals to isolate and disconnect a number of systems, including public internet access, to help quarantine the infection.

While there does not appear to be any evidence that patient information has been infiltrated, efforts to quarantine the infection have led to the shutdown of some patient record, booking and management systems, which is likely to impact the efficient operation of these functions.

The infected hospitals are working on their booking and scheduling to minimise the impact of the incident, but may need to reschedule some appointments where electronic health and other records are not available, the state government said.

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