Iran-linked hacker group launches debilitating cyberattack against US medical company
A cyberattack believed to be carried out by a group connected to Iran struck a major American medical technology company on Wednesday, disrupting operations across its systems. The incident is the first publicly reported hacking attack since the conflict between the United States and Iran escalated.
The company affected was Stryker, a medical equipment manufacturer headquartered in Michigan. According to a statement from the company, the attack caused a widespread outage that disrupted access to its Microsoft-based applications around the world. Stryker said it has not found evidence of ransomware or malicious software and believes the problem has been contained while investigators work to determine the full impact on its networks.
During the incident, login pages used by the company reportedly displayed the emblem of a hacker collective known as the Handala Team, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
The group later posted messages on X and Telegram claiming it was responsible for the intrusion. In those messages, the hackers said they had taken roughly 50 terabytes of sensitive information from the company. They described the operation as retaliation for the deaths of at least 175 schoolgirls in Minab during U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran.
Cybersecurity analysts have previously connected the Handala Team to Iran. The group first appeared in 2022 and has since claimed involvement in multiple cyber operations, including attacks targeting Israeli companies and organizations in countries around the Persian Gulf.
The disruption had an immediate effect on Stryker’s workforce. One employee told NBC News that company-issued phones stopped working during the attack, bringing daily operations to a standstill at the firm, which employs about 56,000 people.
Reports also suggested that some information stored on employee devices may have been erased. In an internal message sent to staff and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the company warned employees not to open suspicious links. Workers were also instructed to remove mobile device management software and work-related profiles from their personal phones.
The message stated that the issue was widespread and was significantly limiting employees’ ability to access company systems and services.
Officials have not yet explained how the hackers gained entry to the network, and it remains unclear whether the group’s claim of obtaining large amounts of data is accurate.
Neither Stryker nor Microsoft immediately provided additional details when contacted for comment.
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