* Romanian authorities announced a “massive” ransomware cyberattack affecting the activities of at least 18 hospitals. The Health information system (HIS) was knocked offline, https://cybernews.com/ informs. The National Cyber Security Directorate (NCSD) in Romania was notified about a ransomware cyber attack on a service provider for multiple hospitals in the country. “Currently, a team of NCSD specialists has been dispatched to the scene to investigate the cyber incident. Several hospitals are affected by the attack,” DNC said. The Romanian Ministry of Healthlisted 18 medical facilities that were affected by the attack. “As a result of the attack, the system is down, files and databases are encrypted,” the Ministry of Health said. The cyberattack took place on the production servers running HIS IT systems during the night of February 11th to 12th, 2024. Currently, a team of IT specialists, including cybersecurity experts from NCSD, is investigating the incident and assessing the resumption possibilities. “Exceptional prevention measures were activated” for hospitals unaffected by the attack. “We recommend that hospital IT teams are not contacted so they can focus on restoring IT services and data! This is the priority at the moment,” the NCSD statement reads. Dr. Diana Bonto, a spokesperson at Targoviste County Emergency Hospital, said that the system is non-functional, and the hospital cannot access files and databases. “Medical activities are being carried out under the limitations resulting from the incident,” Bonto said. At the moment, it remains unclear who is responsible for the cyberattack and whether patients' medical data was stolen. The websites of some hospitals, such as Fundeni Clinical Institute or Military Emergency Hospital “Dr. Alexandru Gafencu” Constanta, could not be accessed at the time of writing.
Romania was formally designated the 43rd country to join the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) on Friday, January 10. According to the Romanian ambassador to Washington, Andrei Muraru, Romanian citizens will be able to travel to the US without the need for a visa starting March 31, 2025. "Romania becomes the first country in the […]
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Romania’s government adopted in its January 10 meeting a decision granting an extra day off to public sector employees at the beginning of May. Thus, Friday, May 2, will be an official day off for public sector workers, linking the legal holiday of May 1 (Labor Day) with the weekend (May 3-4). This...
The Ministry of Environment announced that 2024 was the hottest year in the history of Romania's meteorological records. Red alerts for heat waves began in June of 2024, with the longest consecutive periods of persistent and intense heat waves, six consecutive days, between July 13-18 and August 15-20. "The year 2024 is the hottest year...
Supporters of former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu gathered outside the Parliament Palace in Bucharest, which houses the Constitutional Court, on January 10, demanding a rerun of the second round of the presidential elections. The protest, dubbed "The Great Judicial Union," was initiated by Georgescu, who called on his supporters to challenge the election annulment, as […]
