Software used by thousands of nurses in France was suspended for several days following a cyberattack

The company Veda, which published the software, did not specify whether patient or caregiver data had been stolen by the cyberattackers, or the exact number of nurses affected by the outage.

Thousands of liberal doctors and nurses had to repeat consultations the old way, namely with paper and pencil. Software from the company Veda, which is used by many healthcare professionals, was suspended for several days due to a cyberattack that occurred on Monday, November 10, according to a press release the company issued on Friday, November 14.

The Vedas describe possession “decided to temporarily suspend access to its platform”used by doctors and other nurses such as midwives, because a “attempted intrusion”. “Partial access to the platform was restored on Friday around 9:30 a.m., allowing critical functions to be found in a safe and controlled environment”added the company explaining this “This phased recovery aims to enable a reliable and sustainable resumption of activities without compromising the security of health data”.

The CNIL, the data police, and Anssi, the French cybersecurity agency, have been notified, and a complaint has been filed, the publisher announced. Weda did not specify whether patient or caregiver data had been stolen by the cyber attackers, or the exact number of caregivers affected by the outage, but the company claimed 23,000 customers by the end of 2024.

Many local media in France have reported on the difficulties Veda’s customers face in achieving their mission. “We cannot work without digital tools”tells France 3 Normandie Marc Durand, general practitioner in Évreux (Eure). “My computer won’t turn on, I work all day without patient files”said the GP, pointing out the risks to patients: “If I don’t have access to the cardiologist’s letter with the dose he changed, I rely on the patient’s last prescription.”