A global cyberattack has hit Stryker, affecting employee accounts worldwide, including thousands of workers at its Cork plants. The attack, described as a 'wiper' cyberattack, has resulted in data on IT systems being completely erased and cannot be recovered.
The National Cyber Security Centre in Dublin has been informed and is responding to the incident. Wiper attacks are considered very serious as they are usually politically motivated rather than carried out for financial gain.
The systems at the Cork headquarters have been 'shut down' and devices used by employees were wiped during the attack. Login pages on affected devices were also defaced with the Handala logo.
The attack is linked to the Iranian regime, which is currently engaged in military and economic warfare in response to the US and Israeli bombardment of the country.
Stryker employees are now sharing updates through WhatsApp groups, while staff have been warned not to connect to the network using apps such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams until systems are restored.
The company has put business continuity measures in place while the network disruption continues and is working to restore systems and operations as quickly as possible.
