Ransomware knocks Dutch healthcare software vendor offline The Register
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ppA Dutch healthcare software vendor has been knocked offline following a ransomware attack officials sayppChipSofts website went down on April 7 and remains unreachable at the time of writing The company provides hospitals with patient record software serving around 80 percent of all facilities in the countryppThe ransomware element of the cyberattack was confirmed in an advisory penned by ZCERT the Netherlands computer emergency response team for the healthcare industry and included in a statement published on Wednesday morningppOn April 7 2026 ZCERT received notification that ChipSoft has fallen victim to a ransomware attack it said ppZCERT is in contact with ChipSoft healthcare institutions and our partners We are working hard to assess the impact of the incidentppThe Register contacted ChipSoft for more informationppThe group behind the attack is not yet known and despite the disruption to ChipSofts publicfacing services the majority of hospitals the company serves are still able to use their patient portalsppThe way in which ChipSofts software is used varies by customer some use it for recordkeeping more comprehensively than othersppOnly 11 hospitals have pulled their software offline nine of which are among the institutions that use the software more extensively according to a survey by local news outlet NOSppFor hospitals and other healthcare partners concerned about the intrusion ZCERT recommends auditing ChipSoft systems for unusual traffic and disclosing anything suspicious via its reporting lineppIn its annual landscape report ZCERT listed ransomware and extortion as the foremost concerns for Dutch healthcare organizations threats that have not materially diminished in recent yearsppThe country suffered one of its worst breaches in 2025 after a Nova ransomware attack on Eurofins subsidiary Clinical Diagnostics a cancerscreening laboratoryppAlmost one million patients had their data stolen including basic personal information highly sensitive Pap smear results and skin and urine test resultsppZCERT also pointed to the January ransomware attack on Belgian hospital network AZ Monica as a more recent example of the danger cyberattacks pose to healthcare organizationsppHospitals in Antwerp and Deurne were disrupted for days and were forced to turn away ambulances and transfer patients receiving critical care to neighboring facilitiesppDigital outage is not an abstract IT problem It concerns people who need care said Wim Hafkamp director at ZCERT advocating for hospitals to establish a disaster recovery planppIn Belgium in January 2026 we saw how a cyberattack on a hospital led to prolonged system downtime and postponed operations That directly affects patients and healthcare providers Good preparation ensures that care can continue safely and carefully even then ppSend us newsppBiting the hand that feeds ITppCopyright
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The Register Home Page
ppA Dutch healthcare software vendor has been knocked offline following a ransomware attack officials sayppChipSofts website went down on April 7 and remains unreachable at the time of writing The company provides hospitals with patient record software serving around 80 percent of all facilities in the countryppThe ransomware element of the cyberattack was confirmed in an advisory penned by ZCERT the Netherlands computer emergency response team for the healthcare industry and included in a statement published on Wednesday morningppOn April 7 2026 ZCERT received notification that ChipSoft has fallen victim to a ransomware attack it said ppZCERT is in contact with ChipSoft healthcare institutions and our partners We are working hard to assess the impact of the incidentppThe Register contacted ChipSoft for more informationppThe group behind the attack is not yet known and despite the disruption to ChipSofts publicfacing services the majority of hospitals the company serves are still able to use their patient portalsppThe way in which ChipSofts software is used varies by customer some use it for recordkeeping more comprehensively than othersppOnly 11 hospitals have pulled their software offline nine of which are among the institutions that use the software more extensively according to a survey by local news outlet NOSppFor hospitals and other healthcare partners concerned about the intrusion ZCERT recommends auditing ChipSoft systems for unusual traffic and disclosing anything suspicious via its reporting lineppIn its annual landscape report ZCERT listed ransomware and extortion as the foremost concerns for Dutch healthcare organizations threats that have not materially diminished in recent yearsppThe country suffered one of its worst breaches in 2025 after a Nova ransomware attack on Eurofins subsidiary Clinical Diagnostics a cancerscreening laboratoryppAlmost one million patients had their data stolen including basic personal information highly sensitive Pap smear results and skin and urine test resultsppZCERT also pointed to the January ransomware attack on Belgian hospital network AZ Monica as a more recent example of the danger cyberattacks pose to healthcare organizationsppHospitals in Antwerp and Deurne were disrupted for days and were forced to turn away ambulances and transfer patients receiving critical care to neighboring facilitiesppDigital outage is not an abstract IT problem It concerns people who need care said Wim Hafkamp director at ZCERT advocating for hospitals to establish a disaster recovery planppIn Belgium in January 2026 we saw how a cyberattack on a hospital led to prolonged system downtime and postponed operations That directly affects patients and healthcare providers Good preparation ensures that care can continue safely and carefully even then ppSend us newsppBiting the hand that feeds ITppCopyright
All rights reserved
19982026
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