Synlab Italia shuts down operations due to ransomware attack

Synlab Italia, a medical diagnostics company operating under the global Synlab group, has temporarily halted all its services across Italy due to a ransomware attack. The company manages 380 labs and medical centers and processes 35 million analyses annually.

The incident occurred in the early hours of April 18th 2024 and led to the shutdown of Synlab Italia IT systems to minimize the impact. They disconnected the entire corporate infrastructure and powered down machines as per its security protocols.

While the full extent of the data compromise isn't confirmed, there's a possibility that sensitive medical data might have been exposed. Synlab Italia has communicated concerns regarding the potential exposure of personal data in compliance with GDPR regulations.

All laboratory analyses and sample collections have been paused, and the company advises customers to communicate via phone due to disabled email services.

Currently, Synlab Italia is in the process of restoring services like specialist outpatient visits and physiotherapy, ensuring no malware remains in the IT infrastructure.

As of now, no ransomware group has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. No other details about the attack have been disclosed.

Update - As of 4th of May 2024, the ransomware gang BlackBasta claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to publish stolen data, including personal and medical information, on May 11th, 2024. The gang claims to have stolen 1.5 TB of data, including company information, employees' personal documents, and sensitive medical analyses.