Swedish healthcare after the cyberattacks: Strengthens protection

During the night of Monday, hackers tried to attack the delivery systems of French refrigeration systems for blood donations. Three blood banks with donated plasma were touched and the temperature of the coolers was adjusted from minus 30 degrees to plus 110 degrees.

The French Ministry of Health has stated that there were no consequences because the attack was detected early.

According to Sweden's Municipalities and Regions, SKR, no similar cases concerning blood banks have been reported in Sweden. Johan Thulin, cyber security expert at SKR, states that there is a high awareness of possible digital threats within municipalities and regions.

- The government and responsible authorities have been quite clear to us and say that it is a troubled time. There are actors who want us badly, sometimes for money and sometimes to destabilize Sweden. This is further proof of how important our preparedness work is, says Johan Thulin.

He says that they continuously review their security work and the world situation - he is not yet worried about something similar happening in Sweden.

- All regions have experts who work on finding vulnerabilities and I think this is on their radar. I'm not terribly worried, but it's clear that it's serious and you can't ignore things like this, says Thulin, adding:

- I have not spoken to everyone, but the regions I have been in contact with say that they are paying attention. The regions review their systematic work and strengthen their protection accordingly.

Region Stockholm's management office states that coolers and freezers are used in several parts of the business, mainly in healthcare.

"During the past year, the digital threat landscape in society has changed significantly. With the rapid technological development and AI, the cyber threats are also scaling up. The biggest change in the threats right now is that the speed, scale and availability are increasing at a strong rate. Region Stockholm's approach is in line with the recommendations given by, among others, the National Cyber ​​Security Center," they write in an email to DN.

They explain that they are working to strengthen the ability to manage vulnerabilities and that they continuously evaluate their systems that are exposed to the Internet. According to them, this is done through various checks.

"The Stockholm region's IT environment, like other authorities and companies, is continuously exposed to various types of IT and cyber security-related threats. The region's security solutions block such attacks on a daily basis."