After two of the hospitals were badly hit by ransomware attacks last week, the France President Emmanuel Macron took the pledge of allotting €1 billion to bolster the National Cybersecurity Strategy.
Speaking briefly to the media after the announcement of the investment, Macron said that attacks on healthcare facilities have shown how vulnerable the infrastructure is and how vital is it for the government to strengthen them to meet up the demand.
Now, to those uninitiated, two of the hospitals- one in Dax and other the Villefranche Sur Saone were hit by the file encrypting malware forcing the staff of both the hospital facilities to take up pen and paper for administration and operational purposes. As phone lines were blocked and the internet connectivity was cut down, the affect clearly showed on the maintenance of patient records, surgical devices, medication administration, appointment scheduling, bed allotment and doctor allocation.
Many of the appointments had to be canceled and patients needing emergency help were directed to other hospitals.
The law enforcement was pressed into service and the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) was since working to restore the services to normalcy, probably by data backups.
Some well versed from the political and economic circles of France say that the investment was praiseworthy. However, they say that the funds should be easily accessible and the spending should not be in the hands of the bureaucrats and some money minded people.
They are in a hope that the investment will truly help in protecting the patients from digital invasions by strengthening the in-house Cybersecurity measures with related hardware and software technology.
