Melbourne: Hospitals in Australia's Victoria state were infiltrated by "sophisticated cyber criminals", forcing the cancellation of surgeries and the shutdown of computer services, authorities said on Tuesday.
Targeting the Gippsland Health Alliance and the South West Alliance of Rural Health, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet said in a statement: "The cyber incident has blocked access to several systems by the infiltration of ransomware, including financial management."
"Where practical, hospitals are reverting to manual systems to maintain their services," Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying. Expected to take "up to weeks" to secure the network, hospitals have gone offline in an attempt to quarantine the infection and protect patient data.
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