Cyberattack steals patient and staff data from Chur health centre

Patient and staff data were stolen in a cyberattack on the Gleis D medical centre in Chur, SRF reported Wednesday. The attack also affected the Medi Porta pharmacy.

The attack took place on October 12, according to Romano Cahannes, chairman of the centre’s board. It was detected quickly after the medical centre’s systems failed. Internal IT staff and external cybersecurity specialists responded, temporarily shutting down the affected systems before rebuilding them.

Data stored locally was affected. Information taken included names, addresses, prescription details and X-ray images, as well as employee data. The number of people affected has not yet been determined, Cahannes told Keystone-SDA.

The medical centre said diagnoses and records of illnesses and treatments were not stolen. They were held in a separate application the attackers could not access, which contained most of the patient data.

SRF digital editor Reto Widmer said hackers generally target many companies, organisations or public authorities at once rather than singling out individual medical practices. He said the Chur centre may have been caught up in such a broad attack. Stolen personal details can be valuable to criminals, who may sell them or use them to make phishing emails more convincing.

Cahannes declined to discuss how the attackers got into the system, citing the ongoing investigation. The medical centre has filed a criminal complaint. It is monitoring its systems and has no current indication that the attackers still have access. Investigators are working to identify those responsible; it is not known whether they attempted to extort the centre.