Thousands of employees in Ireland were unable to log into their work devices on Wednesday after Stryker, a US medical technology company, was impacted by a cyberattack.
The company, which produces medical and surgical devices, employs around 56,000 people worldwide, including more than 5,000 in Ireland.
The company is experiencing a global outage across its systems.
Handala, a pro-Palestinian hacking group with links to Iran, has claimed credit for the attack.
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“Stryker is experiencing a global network disruption to our Microsoft environment as a result of a cyberattack,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have no indication of ransomware or malware and believe the incident is contained.
“Our teams are working rapidly to understand the impact of the attack on our systems. Stryker has business continuity measures in place to continue to support our customers and partners.”
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) confirmed it was “aware of the cyber incident affecting Stryker and is liaising with the company and relevant partners”.
“Stryker is a global company headquartered in the United States, and this incident is part of a wider international incident affecting its operations,” a statement noted.
“The NCSC is continuing to monitor the situation closely and assess any impact for Ireland.”
Many Stryker employees around the world were unable to work as a result of the attack and were sent home.
Employees were advised to avoid connecting to any Stryker networks or software through any device, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified.
Some employees have also seen data on their devices wiped as a result of the breach, the person said.
Ireland is home to Stryker’s largest hub outside the US. The company has facilities in Cork, Limerick and Belfast. Stryker has more than 5,000 workers in Ireland, with around 4,000 of them based in Cork.
Staff members posted on social media saying Handala’s logo appeared on their login pages when they attempted to access their devices on Wednesday.
Handala has claimed a string of cyberattacks on Israeli companies in recent weeks. In 2019, Stryker acquired OrthoSpace, an Israeli medical technology firm.
Shares of Stryker were down as much as 5.3 per cent after The Wall Street Journal reported on the breach.
– Additional reporting: Bloomberg
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