Pro-Iran hacktivist group says it is behind attack on medical tech giant Stryker

A radical of Iran-linked hackers accidental they person breached into the servers of U.S. aesculapian tech elephantine Stryker, causing disruptions worldwide. As of Wednesday morning, galore of Stryker’s planetary systems person been wiped, and immoderate login pages are alternatively showing the logo of the hacker group.

The hacktivist group, known arsenic Handala, claimed work for the onslaught in a message posted connected an X relationship purporting to beryllium to the group. The hackers wrote that they attacked Stryker “in retaliation for the brutal onslaught connected the Minab schoolhouse and successful effect to ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure” of Iran and its allies. The hackers were referring to the Minab girls schoolhouse successful Tehran, which the U.S. subject reportedly bombed successful its caller attacks connected Iran, sidesplitting much than 175 people, astir of them children.

Stryker, which makes aesculapian devices and exertion for hospitals, does not look to beryllium straight linked to the caller attacks connected Iran, though it has operations successful Israel and did past twelvemonth unafraid a $450 cardinal contract from the Department of Defense to proviso aesculapian devices to the U.S. military.

“In this operation, implicit 200,000 systems, servers, and mobile devices person been wiped and 50 terabytes of captious information person been extracted. Stryker’s offices successful 79 countries person been forced to unopen down,” the hackers wrote.

The hackers’ claims look to beryllium astatine slightest partially credible. According to The Wall Street Journal, immoderate Stryker systems each implicit the satellite person been wiped, and others are showing the logo of the hackers radical connected login pages. 

“Our teams are actively moving to reconstruct systems and operations arsenic rapidly arsenic possible. Stryker has concern continuity measures successful place, and we’re committed to continuing to service our customers,” a Stryker spokesperson told the Journal.

“Stryker is presently experiencing a severe, planetary disruption crossed the Windows situation impacting some lawsuit devices and servers,” work a announcement sent to employees, according to the WSJ. “The contented is wide and importantly affecting users’ quality to entree systems and services.”

The institution did not instantly respond to TechCrunch’s petition for comment. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which responds to cyberattacks, did not respond to a petition for comment.

According to the IBM X-Force Exchange, Handala emerged aft Hamas’ October 7 onslaught connected Israel and has targeted Israeli civilian infrastructure, vigor companies successful the Gulf region, and Western organizations. “Its operations absorption connected generating disruptive and intelligence impact,” the institution wrote connected the exchange, which tracks menace groups. “Handala employs a wide and evolving toolkit, including phishing, customized wiper malware, ransomware‑style extortion, information theft, and hack‑and‑leak activity. Its campaigns consistently diagnostic ideological messaging, inflated oregon misleading breach claims, and deliberate targeting of life‑critical sectors specified arsenic healthcare and energy.”

Handala besides has a website that lists and doxes dozens of Israelis who allegedly enactment oregon utilized to enactment for the Israeli Defense Forces, arsenic good arsenic large section defence and surveillance contractors, specified arsenic Elbit Systems and NSO Group. 

Israeli cybersecurity steadfast Check Point wrote successful a caller report that since the commencement of the warfare successful Iran, Handala is “breaking into low-hanging systems, conducting hack-and-leak activity, and timing the work of stolen worldly to maximize pressure.”