A cyber attack, allegedly carried out by an Iranian-backed hacker group, has severely disrupted the global operations of US medical technology company Stryker, leaving thousands of employees in Ireland unable to work.
The company’s IT systems, including those at its Cork base where 4,000 people are employed, remain offline following the attack, which is believed to have occurred overnight and affected all Stryker operations in Europe, Asia, and the US.
According to reports, most work devices, including personal phones with Stryker work profiles, have been wiped by the cybercriminals.
(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
In a message to staff in Cork, Stryker stated: “We are experiencing a severe, global disruption impacting all Stryker laptops and systems that connect to our network.”
A separate update sent to colleagues in Asia read: “At this time, the root cause has not yet been identified. We are actively engaged with Microsoft and treating this a critical, enterprise-wide incident.”, reports the Irish Mirror.
Sources suggest that Handala, a pro-Palestinian Iranian-backed hacker group, is the likely culprit behind the attack, having previously targeted companies based in Israel.
A source revealed: “Nobody can work. The entire company has been brought to a standstill. Nobody has any idea what is going on. This is going to have a huge knock-on effect.”
As a global company operating in 61 countries with over 56,000 employees, Stryker’s Cork base is its largest site outside of the US.
A Stryker spokesperson told the Star: “We are currently experiencing a global network disruption affecting the Windows environment. Our teams are actively working to restore systems and operations as quickly as possible. Stryker has business continuity measures in place, and we’re committed to continuing to serve our customers.”
Meanwhile, US banks and economic centres will be the “next targets” of attacks by Iran as people have been warned not to be within 1km of them. A translated post from a Public Telegram Board last night quoted a spokesman of the Quds Force as saying: “Last night, the terrorist U.S. Army and the brutal Zionist regime, after failing in their military objectives, targeted one of the country’s banks.
With this illegitimate and unconventional act of war, the enemy has left our hands free to target economic centers and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime in the region.
“Americans should expect our retaliatory and painful response. People in the region should stay out of the one-kilometer radius of the banks.”
It comes as Israel and Iran have exchanged fire as Tehran kept up pressure on the region’s oil industry, as global energy concerns mount and the war in the Middle East shows no signs of abating.