Cyber Incident Victim: Dax-Côte d'Argent Hospital
Date:
Feb 2021
Location:
France
Summary
A large-scale cyber attack targeted Dax Hospital, disrupting telephone communications and rendering its entire information system inoperable through data encryption. The incident forced the hospital to suspend critical services while teams worked urgently to restore operations, prompting an immediate crisis meeting to address the widespread technical outage. The organization publicly acknowledged the attack and ongoing recovery efforts but did not specify the perpetrators or whether patient data was compromised.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On February 9, 2021, the Dax hospital center in France experienced a major cyber attack that severely disrupted its operations. The incident became apparent by midday when external parties could no longer reach the facility through telephone lines, indicating widespread system failures. Hospital administrators publicly acknowledged the crisis via their official Twitter account, confirming a large-scale cyber attack was underway and stating their teams were working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. The attack employed data encryption techniques that rendered the hospital's entire information system inoperable, affecting critical infrastructure and services. This complete shutdown of digital systems created immediate operational challenges across the facility.
A crisis meeting was convened in the early afternoon to coordinate the institutional response to the attack. The hospital's statement explicitly identified the encryption-based nature of the incident, though no specific ransomware group or motive was disclosed in available reporting. The information system outage persisted throughout the day, with restoration efforts ongoing as publicly communicated. The attack caused significant service interruptions, though the exact scope of affected medical systems and potential patient care impacts weren't detailed in initial reports. Hospital staff continued working to mitigate the situation, focusing on system recovery while managing operational disruptions caused by the encrypted infrastructure. No further details about containment measures, data compromise, or forensic findings were available in the immediate aftermath reporting.