Leeuwarden hospital stops data traffic after attempted hack

The Leeuwarden Medical Center stopped all data traffic with the outside world as a precaution after hackers tried to break into the hospital's systems, the hospital said on Wednesday.

As a result of this measure, patients cannot access their electronic records, communication with other hospitals is hindered, and hospital employees are unable to work from home.

Leeuwarden Medical Center works with Citrix servers for communication with the outside world. The hospital believes that the attempted hack has to do with a vulnerability that was recently discovered in those servers.

"By closing external data traffic, Leeuwarden Medical Center wants to prevent malicious parties from accessing company data," the hospital said. The attempted hack was reported to Citrix and the hospital took all measures the company advised.

Leeuwarden Medical Center cannot say how long this situation will last. "That also depends on the speed with which Citrix can solve the problems."