Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Brest

Profile narrative

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Brest (CHRU Brest) is a French university hospital that delivers a full spectrum of healthcare services to the population of Brittany, including emergency medicine, surgical interventions, medical imaging, outpatient consultations and specialised care pathways. As a teaching institution it is integrally linked to the University of Brest, providing clinical training for medical, nursing and allied health students while also conducting biomedical research that contributes to national and international knowledge. The hospital offers telemedicine services and maintains external result transmission links with partner facilities, enabling coordinated care across the region. Its role as a reference centre for certain complex pathologies means that patients from surrounding departments are often referred to CHRU Brest for advanced diagnostics and treatment. The institution operates under the French public health system as an Établissement public de santé, which places it under the authority of the Ministry of Health and ensures that its missions of care, education and research are guided by national health policy.

In recent years CHRU Brest has been the target of notable cyber incidents that have tested its resilience. On 9 March 2023 a cyberattack disrupted all external connections, forcing the hospital’s information systems into a degraded mode and affecting appointment scheduling, imaging access and data exchanges with partner organisations; the response involved isolating internet‑facing systems, maintaining emergency department operations and collaborating with France’s national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) to investigate the breach. A second ransomware event on 30 June 2023 affected a affiliated facility, Centre Hospitalier Le Jeune, prompting the hospital to disconnect its own information system from the internet as a precaution, rendering email and fax unavailable while assuring that patient care continued uninterrupted and no data theft was detected. In both cases the hospital filed criminal complaints, refused to meet ransom demands and communicated alternative contact methods to staff and families. These episodes have underscored the institution’s reliance on secure digital infrastructure and its capacity to activate crisis protocols while preserving core clinical services. The hospital’s governance remains public, with no private parent or subsidiary structure disclosed in the available sources.

Incidents

2 incidents linked to this organisation.