With the background of recent government warnings about increased cyber-attacks from Iranian-backed hackers, the Irish Examiner has reported that the Stryker site located in Cork, Ireland has been hit with a wiper attack by the Iranian-backed Handala Hacking Team.
The Stryker facility in Cork employs approximately 5,000 individuals and “has been crippled by a cyberattack” being described as a wiper attack, which wipes all of the targeted system’s data and is politically motivated.
According to the Irish Examiner, the Cork Stryker site’s IT systems have been “’shut down’” and Stryker employee devices have been wiped out. The login pages appearing on these devices have been defaced with the Handala logo. The attack, believed to be a response to business links with Israel, has affected Stryker’s Microsoft environment. .
Israeli media reports that Handala has also claimed responsibility for hacking the Academy of Hebrew Language website, and the Israeli National Cyber Directorate is trying to intercept “a wave of Iranian cyberattacks on Israeli civilian companies.”
The U.S. government has warned U.S. based companies to be on heightened alert for Iranian-backed cyber attacks in retaliation for the strikes against Iran. This attack against Stryker makes this warning an urgent reminder to review the warnings and mitigation actions