More than 150 blood plasma donation centers across the U.S. operated by Octapharma Plasma are being closed down due to network issues suspected to have been caused by a ransomware attack, reports The Register.
No further details regarding the incident were provided, with parent firm Octapharma Group noting that updates will be released through its app, social media, website, and email. However, a source close to the matter said that Octapharma's VMware systems have been targeted by the BlackSuit ransomware operation.
"If they don't restore the systems, they will need to close their factories in Europe as more than 75 percent of their plasma comes from the U.S.," said the source.
Such an incident comes months after U.S. healthcare and public health entities were warned by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the aggressive double-extortion tactics leveraged by BlackSuit in its attacks. BlackSuit was previously reported to be a potential successor of the Royal ransomware due to code similarities between both strains.
