Israel Blames Iran for Hospital Data Breach

Israel has named Iran and Hezbollah as the culprits behind a cyberattack on the the Ziv Medical Center.

A joint investigation by the Israel National Cyber Directorate, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Israeli Security Agency determined that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence orchestrated the attack, with the involvement of Hezbollah’s "Lebanese Cedar" cyber unit.

Some 500GB of medical data was stolen from the hospital in Safed, Israel, in the attack, which was first reported last month.

In a statement, the Israel National Cyber Directorate (NCD) said the attack "was thwarted before it could successfully disrupt hospital operations and impact citizens' medical treatment." The NCD confirmed that the attackers managed to extract private data from the hospital's systems but said there was no damage to hospital operations.

Responsibility for the attack was originally claimed by the Malek Team cyber-threat group. The group has made no further statements about the attack, and its Telegram channel is now set to private and its social media has been suspended.

Hezbollah’s so-called Lebanese Cedar group has been operating since 2012, according to researchers from Check Point, and commonly targets the telecommunication sector and Internet service providers in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.