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Boston Scientific, one of the leading medical-device manufacturers in the United States, has suffered a severe cyberattack that is disrupting the company’s daily operations worldwide.
In an official filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company confirmed that access to its IT systems and critical business applications had been severely disrupted.
The Massachusetts-based medical-device giant is globally known for producing sensitive healthcare equipment, including pacemakers and defibrillators. The incident has therefore raised new concerns about cybersecurity across the healthcare technology sector.
The cyberattack has disrupted Boston Scientific’s normal processes for accepting new orders and shipping medical equipment around the world. After the company’s internal network systems became unavailable, thousands of employees working at its Cork campus in Ireland were told to stop working and sent home.
The company’s corporate infrastructure relies heavily on Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. However, the company has yet to determine exactly how the attack began or who was responsible. It has also been unable to provide a specific timeline for restoring the affected systems.
Around 48 million patients worldwide rely on various Boston Scientific medical devices each year. However, it remains unclear whether the cyberattack has affected the functionality of implanted devices or directly compromised patient safety.
In comments to technology news outlet TechCrunch, company spokesperson Shenelle Hastings only reiterated the company’s official statement. She declined to directly answer questions about whether patients needed to take any special precautions or what type of cyberattack had occurred.
A growing number of major healthcare technology companies around the world have recently been targeted in a series of cyberattacks. The Boston Scientific incident is the latest addition to this worrying trend.
Earlier this year, global medical-device manufacturers Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic were also targeted by hackers. Previously, Iran-backed hackers carried out a major cyberattack against US company Stryker. In that incident, the attackers exploited Microsoft’s centralised device-management portal to remotely wipe thousands of devices used by Stryker employees across its Windows network.
The repeated attacks have raised serious questions about the overall security of the healthcare sector worldwide