Boston Scientific reports global IT disruption following cyberattack

A cyberattack on U.S. medical device maker Boston Scientific is causing an ongoing “global disruption” to its operations, according to a federal regulatory filing on Wednesday. This is the latest health tech giant to face a cyberattack in recent weeks.

The Massachusetts-based company, which makes medically implanted devices like pacemakers and defibrillators, confirmed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that on Tuesday it began experiencing “disruptions and limitations of access” to its IT systems and business applications critical for its operations.

Boston Scientific said the cyberattack has affected its ability to ship and process orders, but has not said whether the disruption extends to customers with medical devices and implants.

When asked by TechCrunch, Boston Scientific spokesperson Chanel Hastings shared the company’s public statement but would not comment on whether patients are affected by the cyberattack, say what steps patients should take, or answer questions about the nature of the incident.

Boston Scientific treats around 48 million patients a year, according to its website.

The company’s public statement said that its investigation is ongoing and that a timeline for its restoring its systems is not yet known.

It’s not clear what caused the cyberattack at Boston Scientific. Local media in Ireland reported that thousands of staff across Boston Scientific’s campus in Cork were sent home on Tuesday after network communications were cut across the company.

Boston Scientific is the latest health technology company to have been hacked this year, including medical device makers Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic. Earlier this year, Iranian-backed hackers were blamed for a cyberattack on U.S. medical device maker Stryker, which allowed the hackers to remotely wipe tens of thousands of employee devices across its Windows network by abusing a centralized device management portal provided by Microsoft.

According to public internet records, Boston Scientific relies largely on Microsoft and Amazon Web Services for its corporate infrastructure.