Barcelona's Hospital Clínic website down after ransomware cyberattack

One of Barcelona's top public medical centers, Hospital Clínic, has suffered a ransomware cyberattack.

According to Catalonia's presidency department, the incident was first reported on Sunday at 11.17am CET to the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia, which began to take action at 11.30am.

The statement reads that the attack is affecting the lab, the pharmacy and the emergency departments.

The medical center is already working with the health ministry and other hospitals in the Catalan capital to make sure emergencies and medical transport are taken care of.

Hospital Clínic's website was down as of Sunday afternoon.

A ransomware attack threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off.

UAB university victim of a similar attack in late 2021

The incident comes around one and a half years after a similar attack on UAB.

On October 11, 2021, Barcelona's Autonomous University fell victim to a major dark web cyberattack, forcing the university to disconnect internal networks and switch off the campus Internet.

One month later, the university was "not aware of" any data having been leaked, Lafuente said, nor is concerned for confidential data such as bank account details or academic transcripts.

UAB, which was able to restore all of its students and members of staff's passwords just over a week ago, affirmed on multiple occasions that it would not give in to the hackers' demands.